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A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 


A  CLOUD 
OF   WITNESSES 


BY 

ANNA  DE  KOVEN 

(MRS.  REGINALD  DE  KOVEN) 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

JAMES  H.  HYSLOP,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

SECRETARY  OF  THE   AMERICAN  SOCIETY 
FOR  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH 


NEW  YORK 

E.  p.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Fir$t  printino February,  19S0 

Second  printing .....  March,  tSSO 


Printed  In  the  United  States  of  America 


IN  ORDER  THAT  SHE 
THO'  DEAD,  MAY  YET  SPEAK 

THIS  BOOK 
HER  MEMORIAL 

IS  COMPILED  BY  ONE  OF  THE 

MANY  WHO  BEAR  HER 

IN 

PERPETUAL  REMEMBRANCE 


It  wUl  he  proved  in  the  future,  I  do  not  know 
when  or  where,  that  also  in  this  life  the  human 
sold  stands  in  an  indissoluble  communion  with 
all  the  immaterial  beings  of  the  spiritual  world, 
that  it  produces  effects  therein  and  in  exchange 
receives  impressions  ffom  them,  without  how- 
ever becoming  conscious  of  them  as  long  as  all 
stands  well.  It  would  be  a  blessing  if  such  a 
systematic  constitution  of  the  spiritual  world 
as  conceived  by  us  had  not  merely  to  be  inferred 
from  the  too  hypothetical  conceptions  of  the 
spiritual  nature  generally,  but  would  be  in- 
ferred or  at  least  conjectured  as  probable  from 
real  and  generally  acknowledged  observations. 

Immanuel  Kant, 


PREFACE 

In  giving  the  records  of  what  I  believe  to 
be  actual  communications  from  relations  and 
beloved  friends  who  have  passed  from  the  earth, 
I  am  moved  by  a  profound  conviction  that  any 
facts  which  tend  to  prove  that  the  soul  is  im- 
mortal should  not  be  withheld.  I  think  it  my 
duty  to  present  them  and  leave  it  to  the  judg- 
ment of  my  readers  as  to  their  significance  and 
to  their  imagination  to  account  for  them.  In 
promulgating  the  possible  analogy  between  the 
formula  of  materialized  organisms,  as  stated 
by  Dr.  Geley,  with  the  "mentally  manipulated*' 
substance  of  the  other  world  I  wish  to  disavow 
any  assumption  that  it  is  scientifically  proved. 
Again,  in  quoting  Sir  William  Crookes'  hypo- 
thesis regarding  the  peculiar  organization  of 
the  nerve  ganglia  of  the  sensitive,  I  state  only 
that  Mrs.  Vernon's  method  of  receiving  the 
communications  which  I  publish  seems  to  con- 
firm his  hypothesis. 

This  hypothesis,  which  suggests  the  impact 
of  thought  waves  upon  peculiarly  organized  or 
developed  nerve  ganglia,  is,  however,  in  defi- 


viii  PREFACE 

nite  accord  with  the  universal  wave  theory  of 
the  transmission  of  light  and  heat  and  sound, 
and  hence  can  be  received  without  undue  in- 
credulity. Possessed  of  no  explanation  which 
can  lead  to  a  refusal  to  believe  that  my  friends 
have  sent  me  these  messages,  and  constrained 
by  the  expression  of  their  desire  that  they 
should  be  published,  I  obey  their  behest. 

That  the  inexpressible  joy  which  this  proof 
of  their  continued  and  happy  existence  has 
given  to  me  may  bring  comfort  and  hope  to 
others,  is  the  object  of  this  book  and  my  pro- 
foundest  desire. 


CONTENTS 

Introduction  by  James  H.  Htslop 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    "La    Caravane    Passe,    Malgr6    les 

Aboiements  DBS  Chiens"  ....  1 

II.    Mrs.  Vernon 37 

III.  "Lovely  and  Beautiful  in  Their  Lives, 

in  Death  They  Were  Not  Divided"  43 

IV.  "On  Earth  the  Broken  Arcs"      .     .  53 
V.    "In  Heaven  the  Perfect  Round"     .  106 

VI.    The  Investigators 171 

VII.    Mr.  Edwin  Friend 191 

VIII.    Old  Acquaintances 227 

IX.    A  Record  OF  Materla-lization     .     .     .  239 

X.    And  Our  Last  Enemy  Is  Death  .     .     .  249 


INTRODUCTION 
BY  James  Hyslop 

I  PERSONALLY  knew  the  chief  parties  involved 
in  this  record.  Mrs.  de  Koven's  father  I  knew 
as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Lake 
Forest  University,  when  I  was  a  teacher  there. 
Her  mother  I  knew  at  the  same  time,  and  Mrs. 
de  Koven  herself  as  a  student  there.  The  per- 
sonality involved  in  the  record,  I  also  knew  at 
that  time.  These  facts  enable  me  to  assure  the 
reader  that  the  author  is  no  ordinary  adven- 
turer or  curiosity  monger,  in  the  field  of  psychic 
research.  She  is  the  author  of  a  ''Life  of  Paul 
Jones"  which  has  a  place  on  the  shelves  of  biog- 
raphy, and  she  is  the  wife  of  Mr.  Reginald  de 
Koven,  the  composer  of  well-known  operas. 

These  statements  suffice  to  give  the  proper 
setting  to  what  follows  in  this  book.  Mrs.  de 
Koven  seems  to  have  had  no  interest  in  psychic 
research  until  the  death  of  her  sister,  to  whom 
she  was  devotedly  attached,  and  the  shock  of 
this  loss,  as  in  thousands  of  other  cases,  brought 
her  up  at  once  to  the  realization  that  she  had 
no  philosophic  or  religious  view  of  the  world 

xi 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

that  would  enable  her  to  reconcile  herself  to  the 
order  of  things.  She  set  about  trying  to  find 
if  there  was  any  reason  to  believe  that  the  ob- 
ject of  her  affection  survived  death,  and  the  re- 
sults of  her  inquiries  are  recorded  here.  She 
has  not  shirked  the  notoriety  that  such  a  de-^ 
cision  imposes,  as  outweighing  her  duty  to  the 
public  and  to  those  who  seek  consolation  for  a 
like  loss.  The  book  is  the  result  of  profound 
convictions  and  is  not  subject  to  any  impeach- 
ment unless  the  rigid  scientific  sceptic  chooses 
to  dispute  its  findings.  Its  motives  and  sin- 
cerity cannot  be  questioned. 

I  personally  know,  also,  Mrs.  Vernon,  the 
psychic  or  automatist  involved  in  the  record. 
She  is  a  private  person  receiving  no  payment 
whatever  for  her  services,  but  giving  her  time 
and  effort  as  a  labor  of  love.  She  is  the  wife 
of  a  business  man  in  New  York  City  and  passed 
through  a  very  trying  ordeal  in  the  development 
of  her  psychic  powers,  as  is  of  ten  the  case.  No 
taint  of  professionalism  can  touch  her,  and  all 
the  ordinary  suspicions  that  have  attached  to 
this  subject  and  its  mercenary  votaries  are 
wanting  in  this  instance.  The  only  thing  that 
readers  have  to  consider  is  whether  the  data  are 
explicable  by  chance  coincidence,  guessing,  or 
normal  knowledge  casually  acquired  and  thrown 
out  subconsciously  without  any  personal  recog- 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

nition  of  its  source.  Mrs.  Vernon's  entire  igno- 
rance of  Mrs.  de  Koven  for  some  time  after  the 
experiments  began,  and  the  nature  of  the  facts 
in  most  instances  are  quite  ample  security 
against  the  suspicion  or  reproach  of  even  casual 
knowledge  on  her  part.  So  the  reader  has  at 
least  something  supernormal  to  explain.  The 
author  does  not  need  to  go  farther  than  to  state 
the  facts  and  to  leave  them  to  the  consideration 
of  the  sceptic,  whose  business  it  will  be  to  offer 
evidence  for  ^ny  theory  he  may  entertain. 

The  evidential  incidents  will  commend  them- 
selves to  readers  as  excellent,  at  least  in  many 
instances.  Their  meaning  can  be  mistaken  only 
by  the  most  determined  sceptic,  bent  on  not  ac- 
cepting anything  supernormal.  This  is  not  the 
place  to  illustrate  incidents  having  evidential 
interest,  but  those  not  known  by  Mrs.  de  Koven 
and  afterward  verified  by  her  will  pass  as  giving 
trouble  to  believers  in  telepathy,  even  though 
that  be  conceded  for  what  she  knew.  The  per- 
sonal identity  of  the  communicator  is  clearly  re- 
flected in  incidents  which  the  record  relates 
and  explains,  and  I  would  assign  appropriate 
value  to  them  in  any  scientific  judgment  of  their 
character. 

I  would  not  endorse  the  philosophical  ideas 
expressed  through  Mrs.  Vernon,  and  suggested, 
though  not  asserted,  by  Mrs.  de  Koven.    Nor 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

would  I  oppose  such  views  if  adequate  evidence 
were  adduced  for  them.  Mrs.  de  Koven  states 
explicitly  in  the  Preface  her  own  attitude  to- 
ward them.  Any  one  has  the  right  to  think  of 
them  as  he  pleases.  The  important  part  of  the 
material  is  the  evidence  of  supernormal  phe- 
nomena, and  there  the  emphasis  may  be  laid, 
while  we  wait  for  more  light  in  the  future.  Mrs. 
de  Koven  does  not  assert  any  philosophic  con- 
clusions, but  only  wonders,  like  many  others, 
whether  they  might  not  be  a  hint  in  the  right 
direction. 

The  stress  of  readers,  however,  should  be  on 
the  facts  and  their  evident  pertinence  to  the 
doctrine  of  survival.  That  is  the  crux  of  the 
problem  and  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
not  regard  the  record  as  a  valuable  contribution 
to  the  evidence  of  survival. 


A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 


CHAPTER  I 

La  Caeavane  Passe,  Malgre  les  Abquiements 
DEs  Chiens. — Arab  proverb. 

THE  bourne  from  which  no  traveler  re- 
turns" is  no  longer  impenetrable,  no 
longer  silent.  Authentic  voices  have  spoken 
from  behind  the  veil;  travelers  have  returned, 
visiting  not  only  by  the  light  of  the  moon,  but 
facing  by  full  daylight  the  recognizing  gaze  of 
those  who  knew  their  earthly  forms  and  speech. 
Is  there  proof  of  this?  Are  the  human  hopes 
of  immortality  about  to  be  confirmed?  The  an- 
swer, based  on  the  testimony  of  numberless 
truthful  witnesses,  is  affirmative. 

Reaching  in  its  slow  development  the  age  of 
reason,  humanity  has  turned  the  eyes  of  science 
and  of  practical  investigation  upon  this  ac- 
cumulated testimony,  discovering  not  only  new 
powers  in  the  incarnate  soul,  but  learning  that 
those  powers  are  significant  of  an  endless  exist- 

1 


f  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ence,  a  destiny  of  ultimate  perfection,  of  unim- 
aginable bliss. 

The  resolution  of  what  have,  from  uncounted 
ages,  been  considered  as  miraculous  or  super- 
normal manifestations  of  human  faculties  into 
normal  perceptions  and  normal  correspondences 
with  natural  laws,  has  been  the  effort  of  the  last 
fifty  years. 

Yet  evidence  of  what  are  called  supernormal 
phenomena  exists  in  the  earliest  of  human  rec- 
ords. Out  of  the  deep  night  of  time  the  dim 
traditions  of  our  barbaric  ancestors  glimmer 
with  fiery  portents  and  tell  of  powerful  spirits 
of  good  and  evil.  Religion,  in  some  of  its  earli- 
est phases,  is  based  on  the  manifestation  of  so- 
called  supernormal  powers  in  man.  Criticism 
of  the  unsatisfactory  behavior  of  a  trance  me- 
dium is  found  on  an  Egyptian  tomb.  The 
Pythian  clairvoyants  threatened  and  instructed 
the  Greeks  from  their  subterranean  Delphic 
caves.  Our  own  American  Indians,  near  to  the 
heart  of  nature,  often  encountered  the  shades 
of  their  returning  chieftains  in  the  painted  au- 
tumn forests  or  amid  the  deep  snows  of  winter. 
Their  belief  in  an  endless  life  was  intuitive, 
familiar,  and  expressed  in  many  legends  of 
poetic  beauty. 

The  Oriental  study  of  the  supernormal  phase 
of  human  perception,  of  the  celestial  autonomy 


v 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  S 

and  of  the  progressive  evolution  of  the  soul 
has  grown  into  an  imposing  mass  of  theory. 
Centuries  in  advance  of  the  western  world,  the 
adepts  of  ancient  India  learned  to  manipulate 
the  non-material  part  of  the  human  organism 
until  natural  laws  were  defied  and  normal 
physiology  nullified.  That  part  of  the  human 
organism  called  astral  has  been  voluntarily 
separated  from  the  fleshly  part,  and  projected 
into  space.  Living  bodies,  buried  for  weeks, 
have  emerged  to  resume  their  former  activities. 

Plotinus,  the  Neo-Platonist,  the  seer  and 
prophet,  projecting  his  spirit  through  his  power 
of  ecstatic  vision,  into  the  supernal  realms,  re- 
turned to  instruct  the  earth  dwellers  of  his 
philosophic  day,  regarding  the  life  of  the  liber- 
ated soul.  Swedenborg,  the  omniscient,  in  a 
library  of  volumes,  not  only  revealed  his  intui- 
tive knowledge  of  many  of  the  later  discoveries 
of  science,  but  in  similar  ecstatic  voyages,  fol- 
lowed Plotinus  into  the  infinite,  returning  with 
information  similar  and  illuminating  as  to  the 
superior  and  universal  laws  of  the  supernal 
regions. 

The  legends  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
are  full  of  recorded  miracles  which  now  fall 
into  the  categories  of  Psychic  Phenomena.  The 
Sacred  Word  itself  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
modem  belief  in  immortality  upon  the  super- 


4  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

normal  phenomenon  of  the  resurrection  of 
Christ. 

Why,  then,  with  all  this  testimony,  with  all 
this  proof  of  the  deathless  spirit  in  man,  has  the 
world  groped  so  long  in  a  darkness,  relieved 
only  by  the  flickering  beacon  of  the  intuitive  be- 
lief in  immortality?  Why  has  it  seemingly 
preferred  that  darkness?  Why  has  it  hugged 
close  the  agony  of  death,  believing  it  to  be  utter 
separation?  Why  has  it  lingered  by  the  closed 
portals  of  the  tomb?  Because  of  the  slow 
growth  of  the  reasoning  faculty  in  man.  Be- 
cause also  of  a  determined  repugnance  to  ac- 
cept evidence  in  apparent  disagreement  with 
religious  doctrine,  and  with  the  material  inves- 
tigations and  the  ever  changing  conclusions  of 
science. 

But  Science  itself,  with  its  development  of 
the  reasoning  faculty  and  a  like  growth  in  ex- 
actitude of  observation,  had  at  last  provided  an 
equipment  for  the  examination  of  supernormal 
phenomena.  The  rise  of  modern  spiritualism 
in  the  United  States,  due  largely  to  the  **Hydes- 
ville  Knockings*'  and  the  automatically  in- 
spired writings  of  the  unlettered  sage,  Andrew 
Jackson  Davis,  was  coincident  with  the  state- 
ment of  the  evolutionary  theory  as  promul- 
gated by  Darwin  and  Wallace.  The  represen- 
tatives of  this  triumphant  evolutionary  mate- 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  5 

rialism  were  summoned  by  the  English  public, 
infuriated  by  the  pretensions  of  the  abhorred 
spiritualists,  to  refute  their  statements  and  to 
put  to  naught  their  doctrines. 

In  the  year  1872,  Sir  William  Crookes,  then 
young  and  in  the  full  tide  of  his  brilliant  career 
of  important  scientific  discoveries,  essayed  to 
put  the  pretensions  of  the  celebrated  English 
medium,  D.  D.  Home,  to  the  test  of  a  rigid 
examination  in  his  own  laboratory.  The  re- 
sults were  startlingly  different  to  what  had 
been  confidently  expected  by  the  incredulous 
public.  Not  only  did  Crookes  assert  that  Home 
had  actually  performed  his  miracles  of  levita- 
tion,  of  the  handling  of  live  coals,  and  of  other 
supernormal  feats  before  his  own  eyes  and 
those  of  many  witnesses,  but  in  experiments 
with  a  medium,  Miss  Cook,  also  in  his  own 
laboratory,  he  asserted  that  he  had  seen  a 
materialized  individual  appear  who  walked  and 
talked  with  him  and  his  witnesses.  Her  pulse 
was  taken  by  Sir  William;  he  was  photo- 
graphed, standing  between  Miss  Cook  and  the 
new  individual.  Miss  King,  and  these  photo- 
graphs exist  to  this  day,  together  with  the  later 
testimony  of  Sir  William  as  to  his  unaltered 
conviction  of  the  reality  of  what  he  had  seen 
and  recorded.  A  storm  of  invective  broke  over 
the  head  of  the  honest  and  courageous  scientist, 


6  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

and  the  inventor  of  the  Crookes  tubes,  the  fore- 
runner of  the  X-rays,  the  discoverer  of  Thal- 
lium and  other  chemical  elements,  was  forced 
to  a  cessation  of  his  psychic  investigations,  be- 
lieving, probably  with  reason,  that  his  splendid 
powers  would  achieve  better  results  in  an  un- 
challenged field  of  operation  and  experiment. 

The  storm  of  invective  still  raged,  and  was 
by  no  means  abated  by  the  publication  of  the 
accounts  of  the  examination  of  psychic  phe- 
nomena undertaken  by  the  Dialectical  Society. 
This  company  of  scientific  investigators  also 
announced  their  con\^ction  of  the  authenticity 
of  these  phenomena.  Thus  Science  investigat- 
ing was  repudiated  by  Science  protesting,  with 
purely  a  priori  arguments,  and  the  public  was 
left  to  its  helpless  incredulity  and  dismay. 
"  Other  results  of  the  modern  coincidence  of 
developed  reason  with  developed  observation 
were  at  this  time  beginning  to  make  themselves 
felt,  forcing  an  examination  of  the  historic 
foundations  of  the  long  accepted  doctrines  of 
the  church.  The  mass  of  literature,  embodying 
what  is  called  Modem  or  Higher  Criticism  of 
the  Bible,  flooded  the  universities  and  sapped 
the  foundations  of  the  belief  in  the  verbal  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible,  altered  the  chronological 
sequence  of  its  evangels,  and  disturbed  the  faith 
of  centuries.    In  the  University  of  Cambridge, 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  7 

Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers,  the  poet,  the  elegant  classic 
scholar,  the  devoted  churchman,  submitted  to 
the  acid  test  of  this  disintegrating  exegesis 
with  an  agony  of  doubt.  In  his  distress  he  was 
moved  at  last  to  consult  with  his  friend.  Prof. 
Sidgwick.  "Walking  down  the  English  lane 
one  starry  night,  he  revealed  to  his  companion 
his  despair  of  the  scheme  of  things,  his  unwill- 
ingness to  contemplate  it,  deprived  as  he  was 
of  his  cherished  belief  in  the  validity  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England.  *'Was 
there,"  he  asked  Prof.  Sidgwick,  "one  hint  of 
the  survival  of  the  soul  in  the  unsavory  phe- 
nomena of  the  clairvoyants,  one  ray  of  light  in 
the  mass  of  repugnant  spiritualistic  doctrine T* 
Admitting  a  repugnance  as  profound  as  that  of 
his  friend  for  the  deeply  discredited  clairvoy- 
ants and  the  equally  despised  spiritualists,  Prof. 
Sidgwick 's  conscientious  accurate  mind  could 
not  deny  that,  in  his  opinion,  such  a  hopeful 
possibility  might  exist.  A  hint,  he  said, 
the  barest  hint  there  might  be,  of  the  proof 
his  friend  desired.  To  Mr.  Myers  it  was  a 
question  of  life  or  death ;  nothing  less  than  the 
life  eternal  or  the  death  eternal  of  the  soul. 
To  the  search  in  the  evil  smelling  haunts  of  aU 
discoverable  mediums,  to  the  examination  of 
the  scientific  institutions  for  the  study  of  patho- 
logical phenomena  such  as  hypnotism  and  som- 


8  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

nambulism,  he  determined  to  devote  himself. 
Eminent  as  was  the  collection  of  distinguished 
men  who  were  his  associates  in  the  English  So- 
ciety for  Psychical  Research,  which  was  found- 
ed in  the  year  1882,  Mr.  Myers  was  the  inspiring 
element  of  that  organization.  His  work  entitled 
"Human  Personality  and  its  Survival  of  Bod- 
ily Death,  *'  is  the  epoch-making  text-book  of 
the  new  science.  In  the  opinion  of  the  great 
Genevan  psychologist,  Prof.  Flournoy,  it  is  its 
first  authoritative  statement.  *'If  the  veil 
which  Myers  lifted  does  not  fall,"  says  Flour- 
noy, '*he  will,  by  this  book,  take  his  place  as 
the  last  of  the  triad  of  the  discoverers  of  the 
law  of  the  universe,  beside  Copernicus  who 
discovered  the  cosmological  law,  by  Darwin 
who  revealed  the  biological  law.'* 

The  structure  of  his  philosophy  rises  in  five 
closely  connected  stages.  First,  experimental 
telepathy  is  established.  In  his  conclusions  re- 
garding what  now  seems  to  general  intelligence 
as  a  frequent  form  of  conununication,  Mr. 
Myers  referred  to  the  many  rigidly  conducted 
experiments  leading  to  the  establishment  of  this 
human  faculty,  conducted  by  his  co-workers  in 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  Many 
thousands  of  experiments  with  hundreds  of  in- 
dividuals were  conducted  with  mathematical 
calculations  as  to  the  possibility  of  coincidence 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  9 

in  the  experiments.  Mr.  Podmore  and  Mr. 
Gurney,  who,  with  Mr.  Myers,  published  the 
first  labors  of  the  Society,  in  the  book  called 
"Phantasms  of  the  Living,"  considered  that 
the  transference  of  an  idea  or  image  from  one 
individual  to  another  without  visible  means  was 
established  beyond  any  doubt.  Telepathy,  as 
represented  in  their  first  investigation,  was 
called  ''experimental"  because  it  was  the  con- 
scious effort  of  individuals,  both  aware  of  the 
significance  of  the  experiments,  to  communicate 
their  thoughts  to  each  other. 

The  second  stage  in  the  argument  for  sur- 
vival which  Mr.  Myers  presents  in  his  book  is 
called  "transitional  telepathy"  or  transfer- 
ence of  a  thought  or  image  to  another  uncon- 
scious and  unaware  percipient,  as  when  an  in- 
dividual projects  his  own  thoughts  or  even  his 
own  exteriorized  image  into  the  presence  of  a 
distant  friend.  Rigidly  tested  incidents  of  the 
manifestation  of  this  faculty  in  man,  exercised 
voluntarily  in  certain  cases  at  the  request  of 
the  experimenters  of  the  Society,  were  recorded 
in  "Phantasms  of  the  Living."  The  third  step 
in  Mr.  Myers'  argument  is  "spontaneous  te- 
lepathy," as  in  the  numberless  recorded  in- 
stances of  the  appearance  of  an  individual, 
through  a  projected  hallucination  or  otherwise, 
to  those  nearly  related,  at  the  moment  of  danger 


10  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

or  death.  The  fourth  stage  is  called  **  partial 
invasion'*  of  one  mind  by  another,  as  in  hyp- 
notism. Lastly,  ** complete  possession"  of  a 
human  organism  by  a  discamate  spirit  as  in 
the  case  of  trance  mediums,  such  as  Mrs.  Piper 
of  Boston.  When  these  spirits  succeed  in  prov- 
ing their  identity,  the  last  and  crowning  proof 
of  survival  and  communication  is  attained.  In- 
formation furnished  by  the  possessing  spirits 
when  absolutely  new  to  both  medium  and  sitter, 
and  afterwards  verified,  is  called  veridical.  In 
the  mass  of  information  provided  by  Mrs.  Piper 
alone  during  the  twenty  years  in  which  she 
manifested  her  remarkable  powers,  this  proof 
was  furnished  with  an  overwhelming  quantity 
of  detail.  The  perfection  of  her  integrity  was 
recognized  by  such  witnesses  as  Prof.  William 
James  of  Harvard,  and  the  completeness  of  her 
unconsciousness  during  trance  was  unbroken 
even  through  the  cruel  application  of  acid  to 
her  tongue. 

The  labors  of  the  English  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research  were  directed  primarily  in 
amassing  proof  of  telepathic  communication 
between  incarnate  minds,  in  the  study  of  hyp- 
notism, somnambulism,  crystal  gazing,  psy- 
chometry,  and  other  so-called  supernormal 
human  faculties,  as  well  as  in  the  examinations 
of  ghostly  appearances,  hallucinations,  and  in 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  11 

tlie  apparitions  of  both  discamate  and  incarnate 
personalities.  This  method  of  procedure  was 
both  conservative  and  constructive,  laying  the 
foundation  for  the  comprehension  of  the  powers 
of  the  liberated  spirit  upon  that  of  the  veri- 
fied supernormal  activities  and  powers  of 
the  still  incarnate  human  individual.  The 
manifested  powers  of  Mrs.  Piper  provided  im- 
portant evidence  of  the  possibility  of  communi- 
cation between  the  incarnate  and  the  discamate, 
and  not  only  all  the  English  investigators  of 
psychic  phenomena,  but  also  those  in  Europe 
and  in  Kussia  were  quickly  aware  of  their  cru- 
cial significance.  Mrs.  Piper  had  demonstrated 
her  powers  for  the  American  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research  for  many  years,  and  was  finally 
invited  to  England  to  permit  an  investigation 
by  the  members  of  the  English  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research.  This  investigation  was  con- 
ducted with  all  possible  tests,  and  before  the 
most  eminent  witnesses,  and  the  records  are 
part  of  the  subject  matter  of  the  Journals  of 
the  Society.  They  invariably  attest  her  integ- 
rity and  the  reality  of  the  phenomena  which  she 
presented. 

A  very  interesting  phase  of  proof  growing 
out  of  the  establishment  of  the  several  societies 
for  psychic  research  in  England,  France  and 
America  is  that  furnished  by  their  members 


1«  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

who  have  died  and  in  their  discamate  form 
have  cooperated  with  their  former  associates 
in  establishing  the  possibility  of  communica- 
tion. The  method  adopted  by  the  late  Mr. 
Myers,  by  Professors  Sidgwick,  Verrall  and 
Butcher,  all  of  the  Cambridge  group,  showed 
the  utmost  ingenuity  and  proved  the  persistence 
of  their  characteristic  traits  and  the  retention 
in  their  entirety  of  the  stores  of  classic  erudi- 
tion which  had  been  accumulated  during  life. 
Never  before  had  such  a  united  and  intelligent 
intention  been  observable  in  communications 
from  the  unseen.  A  system  called  that  of 
** cross  correspondence"  was  initiated  by  these 
invisible  collaborators.  One  bit  of  unintelligi- 
ble information  was  given  to  one  medium,  which 
was  later  completed  and  made  intelligible  by 
further  information  given  to  another  medium. 
A  riddle  based  on  the  most  erudite  classic 
knowledge,  communicated  in  cryptic  fragments 
during  several  years  and  to  as  many  as  three 
different  mediums,  was  the  invention  of  the 
surviving  intelligence  of  Prof.  Butcher  and 
Prof.  Verrall.  The  record  of  this  finally  com- 
prehended riddle  was  published  by  Mr.  Gerald 
Balfour  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Journal  of 
the  English  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
under  the  title  of  the  * '  Ear  of  Dionsyius, ' '  and 
represents  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  and 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  13 

successful  example  of  "cross  correspond- 
ence. * ' 

The  striking  expression  used  by  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge,  in  regard  to  the  cooperation  of  his  col- 
laborators on  the  other  side,  expressed  the  ex- 
ulting conviction  that  the  proof  of  survival  was 
actually  at  hand.  *  *  Like  excavators  engaged  in 
boring  a  tunnel,  from  opposite  ends,  amid  the 
roar  of  water  and  other  noises,  we  are  begin- 
ning to  hear  now  and  again  the  stroke  of  the 
pickaxes  of  our  comrades  on  the  other  side." 

One  of  the  most  impressive  of  the  communi- 
cations which  Sir  Oliver  relates  in  his  book — 
'^Eaymond'* — ^is  the  capping  of  this  sentence 
by  Mr.  Myers  to  Lady  Lodge,  at  her  first  an- 
onymous visit  to  a  medium  after  the  death,  of 
her  son.  *  *  Tell  him,  * '  said  Mr.  Myers,  speaking 
to  the  entranced  medium, ' '  that  he  can  not  only 
hear  the  sound  of  our  picks  on  the  other  side  of 
the  tunnel,  but  we  have  made  a  big  hole. ' ' 

It  is  well  known  that  Dr.  Hodgson,  the  late 
deceased  secretary  of  the  American  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  first  visited  Mrs.  Piper 
with  the  intention  of  exposing  the  falsity  of  her 
claims  to  mediumistic  powers  and  that  he  was 
transformed  from  skeptic  to  an  ardent  convert 
to  the  reality  of  psychic  phenomena  and  the 
possibility  of  communication  by  his  conversa- 
tions with  the  discarnate  spirit  of  his  friend, 


14  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

George  Pelham.  These  communications  in  Mr. 
Pelham's  own  voice,  speaking  through  Mrs. 
Piper's  entranced  organism,  were  of  such  start- 
ling naturalness  and  proffered  such  indubitable 
evidence  of  his  identity,  that  they  not  only 
served  to  convert  Dr.  Hodgson,  but  remain  as 
classic  evidence  of  the  power  of  the  discamate 
spirit  to  speak  through  borrowed  vocal  organs. 
They  may  be  compared  in  their  evidentiality 
with  the  records  of  Sir  William  Crookes  in  re- 
gard to  the  phenomena  of  materialization. 

Although  the  intention  to  apply  scientific 
methods  of  observation  to  the  investigation  of 
psychic  phenomena  had  been  avowed  by  the 
Psychical  Research  Society  of  England  at  the 
outset  of  its  organization,  this  method  has  been 
for  the  most  part  applied  to  the  examination  of 
the  so-called  supernormal  powers  of  the  incar- 
nate mind,  such  as  telepathy,  and  the  recording 
of  what  are  termed  the  mental  manifestation  of 
these  powers.  The  investigation  of  psychic 
phenomena  called  physical  has  been,  since  the 
year  1906,  very  actively  pursued  by  distin- 
guished experimenters  in  Italy,  France,  and 
Germany.  The  physical  manifestations  of  the 
celebrated  Italian  medium,  Eusapia  Palladino, 
aroused  the  most  intense  interest,  and  investi- 
gations of  her  powers,  pursued  by  such  men 
as  Sir  William  Crookes,  Mr.  Myers,  Sir  Oliver 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  15 

Lodge,  Lombroso,  Prof.  Flournoy  and  Dr.  Max- 
well, were  followed  by  books  of  several  of  the 
investigators,  in  which  the  authenticity  of  these 
powers  was  admitted,  and  various  theories  pro- 
pounded in  explanation  of  them.  The  works 
of  Floumoy,  Maxwell  and  Lombroso  record 
their  admission  that  Palladino  could  and  did 
move  heavy  objects  without  contact,  but  the 
principal  object  of  their  consideration  was  to 
explain  the  formation  of  the  temporary  mate- 
rialized organisms  which  they  had  all  seen  at 
the  Palladino  seances.  Prof.  Flournoy  de- 
clared his  conviction  that  a  force,  proceeding 
from  the  medium  which  he  called  *' psycho 
dynamism"  produced  these  temporary  organ- 
isms. Dr.  Maxwell  shared  in  this  opinion,  but 
the  enunciation  of  this  hypothesis  was  the  sum 
of  their  conclusions.  They  were,  however,  only 
the  forerunners  of  later  and  more  fortunate 
investigators  who  not  only  again  promulgated 
the  existence  of  such  a  force,  but  who  have  an- 
nounced a  definitive  hypothesis  of  the  creative 
process  of  these  organisms.  This  hypothesis 
points  precisely  in  the  direction  along  which 
Dr.  Maxwell  and  Prof.  Floumoy  were  proceed- 
ing, to  the  coordination  between  so-called  su- 
pernormal phenomena  and  those  called  normal. 
To  ultimate  knowledge,  nothing  is  miracu- 
lous.   Every  manifestation  is  actually  in  strict 


te  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

conformity  with  universal  law.  From  new  ex- 
periments conducted  recently  in  both  France 
and  England,  facts  and  conclusions  have  been 
deduced  which  have  this  important  significance. 
They  also  point  to  a  new  theory  of  matter.  An 
astonishing  fact  leading  to  this  ultimate  con- 
clusion was  recorded  in  Dr.  MaxwelPs  book 
called  * ' Metapsychical  Phenomena,"  published 
in  Bordeaux  in  the  year  1906,  several  years  be- 
fore the  decisive  experiments  in  England  and 
France  were  conducted.  This  indication  was 
minute,  smaller  indeed  than  the  tiny  ;flower 
whose  mysterious  origin  Tennyson  thus  apos- 
trophized. 

*' Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 

I  pluck  you  out  of  your  crannies; 
I  hold  you  root  and  all  in  my  hand 

Little  flower,  but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are  root  and  aU  and  all  in  all 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is." 

"What  was  this  indication  pregnant  with  pos- 
sibilities so  incalculable?  What  was  this  por- 
tent which  promised  nothing  less  than  the  uni- 
formity of  all  law  and  the  unity  of  all  matter? 
It  was  the  sound  of  a  thread  scraping  on  a  china 
statuette.  Dr.  Maxwell  heard  this  sound  and 
recorded  the  fact.  He  did  not  recognize  its 
significance.  Where  did  this  thread  come 
from?    It  issued  from  the  body  of  his  friend, 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  171 

M.  Meurice,  a  non-professional  medium,  who, 
from  his  chair,  moved  by  this  invisible  but  not 
inaudible  thread,  the  statuette  upon  the  mantel- 
piece. M.  Meurice  found  that  tables  moved  up- 
wards towards  his  hands  when  he  held  them 
suspended  over  them.  M.  Meurice  stated  that 
a  substance  like  threads  seemed  to  emerge  from 
his  hands  when  the  table  rose  towards  them. 
Dr.  Maxwell  recorded  the  movements  of  the 
table  and  the  statements  of  M.  Meurice,  as  he 
recorded  his  own  aural  perception  of  the  scrap- 
ing thread  upon  the  statuette.  This  was  the 
sum  of  Dr.  Maxwell's  observations. 

Another  indication  of  the  agency  of  these 
threads  in  the  movements  of  tables  and  other 
objects,  appears  in  the  accounts  of  the  experi- 
ments with  Eusapia  Palladino.  She  stated  that 
she  felt  the  presence  of  these  threads  upon  her 
hands  when  she  moved  tables,  heavy  wardrobes 
and  other  objects  in  the  view  of  her  very  emi- 
nent scientific  investigators.  Later  experiments, 
which  revealed  the  emission  of  a  substance 
sometimes  resembling  these  threads  from  the 
body  of  a  medium,  were  conducted  in  Paris  by 
Madame  Alexandre  Bisson,  in  connection  with 
the  Baron  Schrenk-Notzing.  These  experi- 
ments were  of  vastly  greater  importance,  for 
the  experimenters  saw  and  photographed  the 
substance  as  it  emerged  from  the  body  of  a 


18  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

young  woman  called  Eva  C.  The  medium,  un- 
dressed first,  and  then  clad  in  a  single  garment, 
was  rigidly  examined  by  Prof.  Schrenk-Notzing 
and  the  experiments  were  witnessed  by  as  many 
as  one  hundred  other  French  scientists  and  phy- 
sicians. She  was  placed  behind  curtains  which 
were,  however,  left  open,  the  medium's  hands 
holding  them  apart  and  grasped  firmly  by  the 
hands  of  the  experimenters.  The  appearance  of 
the  substance  usually  announced  itself  by  the 
presence  of  luminous  spots  varying  in  size, 
which  were  scattered  over  the  left  side  of  the 
black  smock  of  the  medium.  Further  emissions 
of  larger  extent  appeared,  coming  from  the 
crown  of  the  medium's  head,  from  the  breasts, 
mouth  and  from  the  ends  of  her  fingers. 
The  substance  had  three  colors — ^black,  white 
and  gray.  Sometimes  it  issued  in  threads, 
sometimes  in  thick  cords  or  flat  ribbons. 
A  remarkable  membranous  form  with  fringed 
edges  and  swellings  closely  resembled  the 
caul.  Sometimes  the  amount  of  this  sub- 
stance was  small  and  sometimes  it  issued 
in  a  mass  of  disorganized  material  like 
protoplasm,  and  covered  the  medium  like  a 
cloud  from  head  to  foot.  The  substance 
could  be  felt.  It  was  cold  and  damp  and  some- 
times slimy.  Sometimes  when  it  took  the  form 
of  cords  it  was  hard  and  dry.    The  threads 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  19 

were  stiff  but  elastic.  The  substance  was  mo- 
bile. Sometimes  it  appeared  and  disappeared 
instantaneously.  It  was  sensitive  and  when 
touched  by  the  hand  of  an  observer,  caused  pain 
to  the  medium.  It  was  sensitive  to  light.  A 
strong  light  caused  the  medium  to  cry  out,  but 
she  could  sometimes  support  full  daylight  and 
a  magnesium  flashlight  which  permitted  photo- 
graphs to  be  taken,  could  be  borne,  altho  it 
caused  her  to  start  violently. 

The  most  remarkable  property  of  the  sub- 
stance, however,  was  its  tendency  to  assume 
forms.  It  seldom  remained  in  a  disorganized 
mass,  or  in  the  shape  of  threads  or  cords.  It 
tended  rapidly  to  assume  organic  forms  which 
appeared  enmeshed  in  it,  and  then  as  if  manipu- 
lated by  the  hand  of  an  unseen  sculptor,  it  took 
the  shape  of  admirably  molded  hands  and  feet, 
of  heads  with  thick  hair  upon  solid  skulls,  of 
complete  and  sometimes  beautiful  faces.  Com- 
plete figures  also  appeared  and  presented  every 
appearance  of  the  living  human  being.  The 
materialized  organs  were  not  inert,  but  were 
apparently  alive  and  grasped  objects  with  in- 
tention. Sometimes  the  organisms  were  less 
than  life  size.  Sometimes  they  were  flat  and 
assumed  the  natural  dimensions  under  the  eyes 
of  the  observers. 

In  the  several  volumes  published  by  botli 


20  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Madame  Bisson  and  Prof.  Schrenk-Notzing,  in 
the  year  1909,  a  great  variety  of  photographs 
were  presented,  showing  not  only  the  admirably 
molded  hands  and  feet  and  faces,  but  also  the 
imperfect  forms.  Dr.  Geley,  former  surgeon 
of  the  Lyons  hospital  and  Laureate  of  the  med- 
ical faculty,  in  recent  experiments  with  the 
same  medium,  has  observed  precisely  the  same 
phenomena  which  Madame  Bisson  and  Prof. 
Schrenk-Notzing  have  recorded.  His  account 
of  these  experiments  was  presented  in  a  dis- 
course to  the  members  of  the  General  Institute 
of  Psychology  in  the  Theater  of  the  Medical 
College  of  France  on  January  28,  1918. 

Although  in  his  preface  to  Madame  Bisson  *s 
published  account  of  their  mutually  conducted 
experiments.  Prof.  Schrenk-Notzing  asserts 
their  common  ignorance  as  to  the  creative 
process  of  these  materialized  organisms,  Ma- 
dame Bisson  had,  in  fact,  arrived  at  one  im- 
portant hypothesis  from  the  experiments, 
namely,  the  unity  and  identity  of  all  matter. 
Dr.  Geley  *s  experiments  led  him  to  coincide 
with  this  hypothesis,  but  he  went  still  further, 
for  he  promulgated  a  complete  formula  of  this 
creative  process.  The  title  of  his  discourse  at 
the  College  of  France  was :  * '  The  So-called  Su- 
pernormal Phenomena  of  Thought  Sculpture.'* 
The  French  term  **L'ideoplastie"  indicates,  in 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  21 

a  word,  his  hypothesis  of  these  remarkable  phe- 
nomena. 

*'I  would  like,  ladies  and  gentlemen,"  he 
said,  **to  prove  at  the  outset  of  this  discussion 
that  there  is  no  supernormal  any  more  than 
there  is  anything  supernatural  or  unknowable.  I 
would  like  to  show  you  that  the  marvelous, 
mysterious,  and  contradictory  appearances  ob- 
servable in  psychic  phenomena  come  solely 
from  our  ignorance  or  our  misunderstanding  of 
the  primal  and  essential  laws  of  life.  I  wish  to 
prove  that  normal  physiology  and  so-called  su- 
pernormal physiology  are  equally  mysterious. 
They  do  not  present  two  problems  which  de- 
mand two  different  solutions.  There  is  one 
problem,  one  alone  and  identical,  the  problem 
of  life  itself." 

Nothing  is  more  familiar  than  the  function- 
ing of  our  organisms.  Nothing  seems  more 
simple  to  the  ordinary  mind,  and  nevertheless 
nothing  is  more  mysterious.  Dr.  Geley  com- 
mented upon  the  hopeless  and  disconcerting 
failure  of  all  scientific  efforts  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  the  origin  of  life.  He  then  stated  the 
conclusions  which  he  had  drawn  from  his  ex- 
periments. 

"Before  our  eyes,"  he  declared,  **we  have 
seen  a  single  substance  exuding  from  the  body 
of  the  medium  and  we  have  seen  that  substance 


22  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

transforming  itself  into  hands,  faces  and  com- 
plete bodies,  possessing  all  the  attributes  of 
life,  of  flesh  and  bone.  Th^n  we  have  seen 
these  forms  dissolve  and  reenter  in  an  instant 
the  body  of  the  medium." 

Dr.  Geley  announced  that  his  conclusion  was, 
that  there  existed  in  these  materialized  organ- 
isms no  actual  muscular  or  nervous  substance, 
but  only  one  substance  which  assumed  these 
forms.  This  substance,  he  declared,  was  the 
primordial  substratum  of  all  these  temporary 
organisms.  In  normal  physiology,  he  also  de- 
clared, there  is  also  but  one  substance.  That 
this  fact  is  less  apparent  in  normal  physiology 
Dr.  Geley  admitted.  He  asserted,  however,  that 
in  certain  cases  there  is  proof  that  this  fact  is 
observable.  In  the  protecting  encasement  of  a 
chrysalis,  an  insect  form  exists,  shut  out  from 
light  and  air.  At  a  certain  period  in  its  devel- 
opment, this  insect  dissolves  into  a  creamy 
primordial  mass,  precisely  similar  to  the  proto- 
plasm which  exuded  from  the  body  of  Madame 
Bisson's  medium.  Then  this  substance  reor- 
ganizes itself  into  an  entirely  different  entity. 

The  analogy  between  the  creative  process  of 
these  materialized  organisms  and  that  of  the 
insect  in  the  chrysalis  points,  in  Dr.  Geley 's 
opinion,  to  the  conclusion  that  all  living  forms 
are  essentially  constructed  from  one  single  sub- 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  23 

stance.  No  valid  difference  can  be  maintained 
to  exist  between  normal  and  so-called  super- 
normal physiology.  This  was  the  first  of  the 
conclusions  which  Dr.  Geley  and  Madame  Bis- 
son  drew  from  these  experiments. 

In  regard  to  the  flat  and  incomplete  organ- 
isms, Dr.  Geley  declared  that  he  believed  they 
were  due  to  a  defective  organizing  power.  He 
compared  them  to  incomplete  forms  occurring 
in  antenatal  organisms.  "As  in  normal  physi- 
ology, so  in  physiology  called  supernormal, 
there  are  perfect  and  also  aborted  forms,  mon- 
strosities, and  so  forth.  The  parallelism  is  com- 
plete." 

Dr.  Geley  considers  that  the  sensitiveness 
shown  simultaneously  by  the  exuded  substance 
and  by  the  medium,  prove  that  the  substance  is 
the  medium  herself  partially  exteriorized.  The 
incident  of  the  dematerialization  of  the  body  of 
a  medium  as  recorded  by  M.  Atsakoff,  confirms 
this  hypothesis.  In  all  cases,  even  when  forms 
have  originally  appeared  without  apparent  con- 
tact with  the  medium,  the  observers  have  seen 
them  dissolve  and  reenter  her  body. 

Two  other  conclusions  of  equal  importance 
with  the  first  were  drawn  by  Dr.  Geley.  The 
second  pertained  to  the  directing  force  which 
formed  these  temporary  organisms.  What  is 
this    directing    force?     The    term    * 'psycho- 


24  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

dynamism,*'  invented  by  Prof.  Flournoy,  indi- 
cated solely  that  there  exists  some  force,  which 
he  concluded  to  be  an  emanation  from  the  body 
of  the  medium.  The  term  itself  was  only 
vaguely  explanatory.  Dr.  Geley  states  only 
the  necessity  of  admitting  the  existence  of  this 
superior  dynamism,  but  insists  that ' '  this  neces- 
sity arises  from  the  sum  of  knowledge  pos- 
sessed by  man  of  all  physiological  processes. ' ' 

This  accumulated  knowledge  has  one  univer- 
sally concordant  significance,  which  is,  that 
this  force  dwelling  in  a  higher  degree  in  the 
body  of  a  medium,  but  actually  existing  in 
every  living  organism,  is  magnetic  or  elec- 
trical. 

In  this  connection,  the  experiments  of  Dr. 
Crawford,  professor  of  Applied  Science  in  the 
University  of  Belfast,  present  definite  and  illu- 
minating information.  In  his  book,  ''The 
Eeality  of  Psychic  Phenomena,*'  Dr.  Crawford 
has  stated  that  he  perceived  by  touch  an  emis- 
sion of  a  thready  substance  from  the  body  of  a 
medium.  The  substance  formed  itself  into  a 
flexible  rod  and  took  the  form  of  a  cantilever 
which  attached  itself  to  the  under  surface  of  a 
table.  In  its  flexible  form  it  did  not  suffice  to 
lift  the  table,  but  under  the  action  of  some  in- 
visible force  it  became  hard  and  stiff  and  then 
not  only  lifted  the  table,  but  could  make  sounds 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  25 

as  if  from  a  sledge  hammer.  Dr.  Crawford 
could  not  see  this  cantilever,  which  he  called  a 
psychic  rod,  but  he  was  able  to  photograph  it. 
The  photographic  plate  showed  also  other  rods, 
connecting  the  bodies  of  all  the  experimenters 
present  with  the  body  of  the  medium.  Dr. 
Crawford  concludes  that  these  rods  are  stif- 
fened by  a  molecular  force  allied  to  electricity, 
and  that  this  electricity  or  magnetism  is  con- 
tributed by  all  the  living  organisms  present,  giv- 
ing added  power  to  the  medium. 

Dr.  Crawford's  opinion  is  that  the  substance 
is  supplied  by  the  medium  alone,  while  magnetic 
or  electrical  power  is  also  supplied  by  the  other 
human  beings  present.  This  magnetism  is  there- 
fore an  agent  in  the  stiffening  of  the  psychic 
rods  as  well  as  an  increment  in  the  magnetic 
force  employed  by  the  medium.  Electricity, 
then,  seems  to  be  the  superior  dynamism  to 
which  Dr.  Geley  refers,  the  implement  by  which 
the  protoplasm  is  molded  into  forms. 

In  his  latest  book,  *' Experiments  in  Psychi- 
cal Science,"  Dr.  Crawford  states  that  when, 
at  his  request,  an  increment  of  weight  was 
placed  upon  the  table  by  the  unseen  collabora- 
tors in  his  experiments,  an  important  de- 
crease of  weight  in  the  medium  was  recorded  on 
the  weighing  machine  on  which  she  was  placed. 
Dr.  Crawford  declares  that  he  believes  this  loss 


26  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

of  weight  in  the  medium  was  due  to  the  extrac- 
tion of  substance  from  her  body.  He  also  states 
that  he  discovered  a  material  substance,  viscid 
to  the  touch,  which  resembled  the  substance  ex- 
uded from  Madame  Bisson's  medium,  on  the 
under  surface  of  the  table,  where  his  psychic 
rods  had  been  attached. 

The  experiments  of  Dr.  Crawford  are  thus 
seen  to  agree  in  several  important  points  with 
those  of  Madame  Bisson  and  Dr.  Geley,  as  well 
as  to  throw  light  on  the  origin  in  the  bodies  of 
the  experimenters  of  at  least  a  portion  of  the 
energy  or  superior  dynamism  employed  in  the 
formation  of  the  materialized  structures. 

The  third  and  most  important  of  Dr.  Geley  *s 
conclusions  regarding  the  creation  of  these  or- 
ganisms is  that  the  directing  dynamism  must  it- 
self obey  something  still  higher.  This  higher 
controlling  power  is  the  idea,  the  thought,  ini- 
tiating and  creating,  which  conceives  the  form 
of  these  organisms. 

Here,  then,  is  the  last  of  the  three  elements 
in  the  formula  of  creation  as  observed  in  his  ex- 
periments. First,  the  single  primordial  sub- 
stance; second,  the  magnetic  dynamism;  third, 
the  creative  idea. 

*' Ladies  and  gentlemen,**  declared  Dr.  Geley, 
**we  have  here  a  total  reversal  of  material  phys- 
iology.   The  living  being  can  no  longer  consider 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  «7 

himself  a  simple  complex  of  cells;  the  living 
being  is  a  product  of  psychic  force  molded  by 
a  creative  idea.  Thus,  in  spite  of  the  many 
guesses  at  the  origin  of  life  which  the  idealistic 
philosophy  of  to-morrow  will  develop,  the  so- 
called  materialistic  theory  of  the  universe  is 
seen  to  be  false.** 

As  to  the  idea  which  forms  these  materialized 
organisms,  it  is  Madame  Bisson's  opinion  that 
it  does  not  originate  in  the  active  mind  of  the 
experimenters;  rather,  it  is  her  belief,  that  it 
operates  through  their  subconscious  minds, 
obeying  some  exercise  of  superior  intelligence. 

The  coordination  of  the  three  elements  in 
the  formula  of  the  creative  process  of  these  ma- 
terialized organisms  is  the  great  contribution 
which  Dr.  Geley  has  made  to  the  new  Psychic 
Science.  Madame  Bisson  had  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  there  was  one  original  substance  in 
matter.  M.  de  Rochas,  in  experiments  con- 
ducted with  the  utmost  scientific  accuracy,  had 
proved  the  existence  of  a  fluidic  magnetic  force 
in  human  organisms.  Prof.  Flournoy  and  Dr. 
Maxwell  had  added  their  conclusions  as  to  the 
agency  of  a  magnetic  force  in  the  formation  of 
these  organisms.  Dr.  Crawford's  experiments 
add  confirmation  to  the  conclusions  of  Dr.  Max- 
well and  Flournoy.  Altho  Sir  William  Crookes, 
in  his  new  classic  record  of  his  experiments  in 


28  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

materialization,  attested  his  belief  in  the  reality 
of  such  phenomena,  he  made  no  attempt  to  ex- 
plain their  creative  process.  The  great  Alfred 
Russel  Wallace  also,  altho  actually  observing 
the  formation  of  these  organisms,  and  in  one 
case  seeing  the  substance  emerge  from  the  body 
of  a  medium,  failed  also  to  form  any  definite 
theory  as  to  the  process  of  their  creation. 

It  remained  for  Dr.  Geley  to  confirm  the  hypo- 
theses of  his  predecessors  and  by  adding  to  the 
two  elements  already  discovered  the  most  im- 
portant element  of  all,  ** controlling  mind,*'  to 
arrive  at  a  formula  which,  in  his  opinion,  makes 
a  basis  for  the  coordination  of  all  physiological 
processes,  nothing  less  than  a  new  theory  of  the 
universe.  No  more  diflScult  problem  has  surely 
ever  been  presented  for  scientific  investigation 
than  that  of  materialization. 

The  fact  recorded  by  Sir  William  Crookes, 
that  a  lock  of  chestnut  hair,  cut  from  the  head 
of  Katie  King,  remained  in  all  its  unaltered 
brightness  in  his  possession,  adds  a  singular 
proof  of  her  actual,  altho  temporary,  existence 
in  her  materialized  form.  That  molds  of  ma- 
terialized hands  and  feet,  plunged  voluntarily 
into  bowls  of  melted  paraflfine,  should  be  seen 
and  preserved  by  many  observers  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  materialization,  provides  added 
proof  of  their  reality. 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  189 

The  present  writer  has  now  the  privilege  of 
adding  a  suggestion  to  the  all-important  con- 
clusions of  Dr.  Geley.  It  is  this:  Ether,  or  a 
primordial  substance,  manipulated  Ij  means  of 
a  force  allied  to  electricity,  by  controlling  mind, 
is  not  only  the  creative  process  of  these  materi- 
alized organisms,  but  the  creative  formula  of 
the  other  world. 

A  year's  experience  of  communication  with 
the  so-called  dead  has  revealed  to  me  nothing  so 
satisfactory  as  this. 

** Ether  manipulated  mentally"  is  the  phrase 
which,  through  telepathic  thought  vibrations, 
has  been  given  from  unseen  communicators  to 
the  remarkable  medium  whose  powers  have 
been  exercised  during  the  past  year  in  my  be- 
half. All  truth  is  allied.  Every  fact  and  con- 
clusion deduced  from  the  experiments  of 
Madame  Bisson,  of  Dr.  Schrenck-Notzing  and 
of  Dr.  Geley  finds  its  illustration  and  amplifica- 
tion in  the  information  given  to  her  regarding 
the  creative  processes  of  the  other  world.  In 
the  visible  world,  we  know,  manual  manipu- 
lation aids  the  creative  process  of  aU  the  objects 
which  we  see  and  use.  In  the  other  world, 
thought  operates  upon  primordial  substance 
independently. 

It  is  an  astonishing  fact  that  photographs  of 
a  similar  process  of  thought  manipulation  have 


30  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

been  taken  and  that  the  process  itself  has  been 
many  times  observed  by  the  eyes  of  living  ex- 
perimenters. 

Thus,  we  have  not  only  a  new  hypothesis  of 
material  life,  but  a  formnla  of  life  eternal. 
Landscapes,  so  it  has  been  stated,  are  evoked  by 
this  process  from  the  ether  which  is  itself  an 
*' efflux  from  Divinity."  Temples  of  learning 
and  of  music  are  constructed  by  the  masters 
who  have  perfected  their  powers  of  plastic  im- 
agination through  eons  of  experience.  The  arts 
and  crafts  are  followed  by  those  whose  earthly 
tastes  had  adapted  them  to  these  pursuits. 
*'The  musician  has  his  music;  the  painter  has 
his  colors ;  the  athlete  has  his  games,"  so  I  have 
been  told. 

Nothing  exists  on  earth  which  has  not  its 
counterpart  in  the  other  world.  So  spake  Plo- 
tinus,  so  affirms  the  shade  of  Sir  Oliver  Lodge's 
son  Raymond,  in  testimony  which,  in  the  light 
of  this  new  knowledge,  no  longer  seems  incredi- 
ble or  absurd.  Proof  may  fail  us  until  we  see 
and  know  these  things  by  the  light  of  heaven 
itself,  but  at  least  through  the  analogy  of  the 
seen  process  of  materialization,  with  the  de- 
scription of  the  ethereal  process  we  may  appre- 
hend the  construction  of  the  other  world. 

One  means  of  communication  between  both 
worlds  we  may  also  apprehend.    The  transfer- 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  81 

ence  of  thought  messages  by  electrical  vibra- 
tions through  the  ether  to  the  nerve  ganglia  of 
the  brain  of  a  sensitive  is  the  invariable  state- 
ment given  to  me  as  one  method  of  communica- 
tion from  the  unseen.  * '  The  nerve  ganglia,  * '  so 
it  has  been  further  stated,  ''are  larger  in  the 
brain  of  a  psychic  than  in  ordinary  brains.'* 
The  sheath  of  the  nerves  is  also  thinner,  due  to 
some  nervous  history  or  inheritance.  Thus  sup- 
plied with  larger  and  unusually  exposed  nerve 
wires,  the  brain  of  the  psychic  is  prepared  to 
receive  the  vibrations  more  rapidly  than  those 
of  light,  which  bring  thoughts  and  images  from 
the  unseen.  Sir  William  Crookes,  in  a  discourse 
delivered  before  the  English  Society  for  Psy- 
chical Research,  in  the  year  1897,  propounded 
the  theory  that  these  waves  are  similar  in  char- 
acter to  those  of  the  ic-ray.  Then,  in  striking 
agreement  mth  the  information  regarding  the 
peculiar  organization  of  the  brain  of  the  psychic 
as  given  to  me,  he  observed : '  *  A  sensitive  would 
be  a  man  with  ganglia  of  reception  and  trans- 
mission so  developed  or  so  exercised  as  to  ren- 
der him  peculiarly  sensitive  to  the  waves  in 
question." 

The  ouija  board,  in  all  probability,  mag- 
netized by  the  human  operators,  is  moved, 
sometimes  by  thought  vibrations  from  their 
own  subconscious  minds  and  sometimes  by  in- 


32  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

visible  communicators.  So  the  tipping  table 
moves  often  at  the  command  of  the  subconscious 
vibrations  from  the  living  and  sometimes  at  the 
authentic  bidding  of  discarnate  beings. 

The  analogy  of  thought  vibrations  in  the 
ether  with  the  etheric  waves  of  the  wireless  tele- 
graph is  so  striking  that  it  cannot  fail  to  per- 
suade the  mind  to  an  easy  acceptance  of  the  in- 
formation as  to  this  means  of  communication 
between  incarnate  and  discarnate  minds.  The 
similarity  of  nerve  energy  to  electricity  has 
been  asserted  by  Herschel,  who  spoke  of  the 
brain  as  the  *  *  required  electrial  power  for  mus- 
cular motion.**  Faraday,  altho  declaring  that 
he  was  not  sure  that  nerve  energy  was  solely 
electrical,  still  asserted  his  belief  that  this  en- 
ergy was  inorganic  and  might  be  allied  to  elec- 
tricity. 

Volta  and  Galvani  long  ago  demonstrated  the 
existence  of  electrical  currents  between  regions 
of  unequal  physiological  activity  in  living  tis- 
sues. The  characteristic  electrical  sensitivity 
in  living  tissues  itself  indicates  that  the  chief 
means  of  controlling  and  correlating  cell  pro- 
cesses are  electrical.  Does  this  mean  that  liv- 
ing organisms  are  vitalized  by  this  indwelling 
electricity,  plus  the  element  called  mind  or 
soul? 

This  query  suggests  another  bearing  crucially 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  88 

upon  the  similarity  of  the  creative  process  of 
the  ethereal  world,  as  given  to  me,  with  that  of 
the  materialized  organisms  observed  by  Dr. 
Geley.  75  the  protoplasm  exuded  from  the  body 
of  the  living  medium  a  modification  or  condensa- 
tion of  the  primordial  substance  of  the  imi- 
verse?  And  if  so,  is  this  the  "mentally  manip- 
ulated ether"  of  the  unseen  worid?  The  latest 
discoveries  of  science  asseri;  that  electrons  form 
the  basic  stuff,  the  raw  material,  so  to  speak, 
out  of  which  all  objects  known  to  man  are  com- 
posed. It  is  further  stated  that  electrons  are 
"specks  of  modified  ether.'*  The  term  "elec- 
tron*' was  originally  suggested  for  the  unit  of 
electrical  energy.  It  was  later  applied  to  the 
ultra-atomic  particles  carrying  charges  of  nega- 
tive electricity.  The  infinitely  small  particles 
into  which  atoms  have  been  subdivided — ^the 
electrons — are  thus  seen  to  be  not  so  truly 
"modified  ether"  as  electrified  ether,  in  other 
words,  specks  of  matter,  molded  or  reenforced 
by  electricity.  Here  may  we  assume  that  we 
have  precisely  the  two  first  elements  of  the  cre- 
ative formula  of  the  materialized  organisms,  as 
observed  by  Dr.  Geley?  The  existence  of  the 
third  element,  '  *  controlling  mind, ' '  in  the  crea- 
tive process  of  the  ethereal  world,  is  not  difficult 
to  postulate. 

In  all  probability,  the  difference  between  the 


84  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

** thought  sculpture"  observed  in  these  mate- 
rialization phenomena  and  that  employed  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  other  world  is  that  in  the 
first  the  protoplasm  is  furnished  by  the  living 
being,  while  that  of  the  other  world  is  a  free  and 
universally  disseminated  substance,  in  its  abso- 
lute primordial  form. 

In  the  light  of  the  lately  published  experi- 
ments of  Einstein,  which  seem  to  nullify  pre- 
vious experiments,  bearing  upon  the  calculation 
of  the  velocity  of  light  through  the  substance 
hitherto  called  "  ether, "  and  to  indicate  the  pos- 
sible non-existence  of  the  ether  itself,  we  are 
compelled  to  revert  to  the  certain  presence  of 
nebulous  tracts  in  the  heavens  for  our  belief 
in  the  existence  of  forms  of  matter  in  the  uni- 
verse in  stages  of  progressive  condensation. 
Ether,  the  noun  of  the  Greek  verb  to  undulate, 
is  seen  to  be  but  a  term,  employed  by  Science 
for  the  medium  through  which  light  is  trans- 
mitted. The  material,  existing  at  least  in  the 
spheres  of  the  planetary  bodies,  may  be  pre- 
sumed to  have  a  definite  existence,  and  may  be 
the  malleable  substance,  employed  by  the  dis- 
carnate  entities,  who  without  exception  testify 
in  transcendental  communications  that  they  do 
fashion  the  appurtenances  of  their  world  by  the 
power  of  thought.  As  to  the  presence  of  mag- 
netism or  an  electric  dynamism  in  the  human 


LA  CARAVANE  PASSE  36 

frame,  no  possible  doubt  remains.  The  hy- 
pothesis of  Sir  William  Crookes,  as  to  the  "pe- 
culiar  constitution  of  certain  brains  which 
adapts  them  to  receive  communications  from 
the  unseen,  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the 
''sensitive"  who  has  transmitted  a  volume  of 
veridical  messages  to  me.  She  experiences 
what  she  describes  as  "mild  electric  currents" 
when  these  messages  reach  her  exquisitely  re- 
ceptive nerve  ganglia.  Thus  by  thought  waves 
electrically  borne  we  may  have  the  strongest 
reason  to  believe  that  communication  does  ac- 
tually take  place  between  both  worlds. 

To  the  established  facts  of  survival  and  com- 
munication we  may  now  apprehend  the  means 
of  that  communication.  We  may  also  imagine 
with  what  increased  powers  the  liberated  soul 
fashions  for  itself,  through  its  inherited  divin- 
ity an  environment  expressive  of  its  ultimate 
possibilities  of  imagination.  With  what  flood- 
ing increase  of  knowledge  and  of  delight  must 
it  not  contemplate  those  fields  of  Asphodel? 
Voyaging  with  the  rapidity  of  light  rays  from 
earth  to  heaven,  speaking  that  universal  thought 
language,  the  ultimate  Esperanto  of  human 
communication,  it  reads  all  the  thoughts  trans- 
mitted and  recorded  eternally  upon  the  cir- 
cumambient ether. 

And  at  last,  we  of  earth  may  apprehend 


86  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

through  the  slow  increment  of  experimental 
knowledge  that  unity  of  force,  unity  of  sub- 
stance, unity  of  origin  in  the  one  Supreme 
Mind,  exists  in  our  phase,  as  in  all  phases  of 
life  eternal. 

So  we  approach  by  scientific  investigation 
the  theories  of  metaphysics  and  of  philosophy. 
So  we  confirm  the  revelations  of  ecstatic  vision 
and  the  intuitions  of  those  who  have  had 
glimpses  of  universal  law.  So  thins  the  veil,  so 
breaks  the  light  eternal. 


CHAPTER  n 

Mrs.  Vernon 

"A  sensitive  would  be  a  man  with  ganglia  of  reception 
and  transmission  peculiarly  sensitive  to  thought  waves.'* 
— Sir  William   Crookes. 

T  N  contributing  the  statement  of  my  own  con- 
-'■  viction  that  communication  is  possible,  un- 
der certain  conditions  and  by  certain  methods, 
to  the  similar  statements  already  published,  I 
assume  that  it  is  pertinent  to  state  the  basis  of 
that  conviction  and  to  relate  the  manner  in 
which  I  reached  it. 

Although  refraining  from  a  skeptical  atti- 
tude regarding  the  many  current  anecdotes  of 
ghostly  appearances,  of  reported  messages 
from  the  unseen  through  the  physical  media  of 
the  planchette,  the  ouija  board  and  the  mov- 
ing table,  I  had  never  seriously  investigated 
them.  I  had  never  visited  a  clairvoyant;  I 
had  never  read  a  book  or  an  article  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Psychic  Phenomena  until  the  Spring  of 
1918,  when  my  sister  was  suddenly  taken  from 
this  earthly  life.    In  the  agony  of  my  grief,  I 

37 


38  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

was  led  by  the  entirely  voluntary  agency  of  a 
friend  to  visit  Mrs.  Vernon  of  New  York.  This 
lady,  who  never  accepts  professional  remunera- 
tion for  the  use  of  her  remarkable  powers,  is 
only  willing  to  employ  them  for  the  assistance 
of  those  in  sorrow  or  for  the  pursuit  of  psychic 
research. 

A  study  of  ten  years,  combined  with  per- 
sonal investigation  and  experiment,  had  con- 
vinced my  friend  that  communication  was  pos- 
sible and  knowing  of  Mrs.  Vernon,  through  Dr. 
Elwood  Worcester  of  Boston,  he  acted  on  the 
belief  that  I  might  be  assisted  in  what  was, 
at  that  time,  a  critical  condition  of  health,  by 
an  interview  with  her. 

When  I  first  visited  Mrs.  Vernon,  less  than 
a  week  after  my  sister's  death,  I  was  not  in- 
troduced to  her  by  the  friend  who  had  arranged 
the  meeting.  She  had  never  seen  me  or  any 
likeness  of  me;  she  knew  no  fact  of  my  life; 
she  did  not  know  that  a  relative  of  mine  had 
recently  died. 

Unaware,  as  I  was  at  that  time,  of  any  of  the 
methods  of  communication,  I  was  warned  that 
I  should  avoid  asking  any  question  or  making 
any  remark  which  could  furnish  any  informa- 
tion as  to  my  identity  or  that  of  any  one  living 
or  dead  connected  with  me. 

Although  the  messages  received  were  defi- 


MRS.  VERNON  99 

nitely  characteristic  of  my  parents  and  my 
sister,  although  information  then  given  to  me 
was  in  some  important  particulars  quite  new 
to  me  and  evidential  in  a  very  high  degree,  I 
did  not  have  the  opportunity  of  verifying  it 
until  some  weeks  had  passed.  The  verification, 
when  it  was  obtained,  was  so  complete,  the  con- 
ditions of  my  anonjTnity  were  so  perfect,  and 
the  ignorance  of  Mrs.  Vernon  regarding  my 
sister's  death  so  undeniable,  that  I  was  led  to 
continue  my  meetings  with  her. 

Since  that  week  of  April,  1918,  I  have  seen 
Mrs.  Vernon  regularly  and  have  written  down 
with  verbal  accuracy  the  messages  she  has  re- 
ceived for  me.  They  are  of  such  startling  im- 
portance from  the  viewpoint  of  their  evidence 
of  survival  and  communication,  as  well  as  of 
information  concerning  the  conditions  of  the 
other  world,  that  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  give 
them  to  the  public. 

Mrs.  Vernon's  mediumistic  gifts  consist  in 
what  is  called  clairvoyance  and  clairaudience. 
Not  clairvoyance  in  its  commonly  accepted 
meaning  of  fortune  telling,  but  the  power  of 
seeing  with  a  clearness  denied  to  ordinary  hu- 
man beings,  projected  images,  symbolic  or  de- 
scriptive, and  sometimes  what  seem  to  be  the 
actual  forms  and  familiar  gestures  of  surviv- 
ing personalities.     Clairaudience  is  the  allied 


40  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

power  of  hearing  verbal  messages.  Without 
attempting  a  categorical  statement  that  the 
method  by  which  Mrs.  Vernon  is  able  to  regis- 
ter these  messages  is  indeed  that  of  Sir  William 
Crookes*  hypothesis,  it  is  possible  to  assert 
that  there  are  many  indications  which  point  to 
the  high  probability  that  she  has  precisely  the 
peculiarly  constituted  brain  ganglia  which  give 
her  this  power.  Owing  to  the  illness  of  her 
mother,  who  only  survived  her  birth  by  a  few 
years,  she  was  bom  with  the  peculiar  nervous 
organization  of  the  so-called  psychic. 

Although  evidence  of  clairvoyant  powers  was 
not  lacking  in  her  early  youth,  her  normal  en- 
joyment of  life,  for  which  she  is  eminently 
fitted,  prevented  any  desire  to  use  her  gifts 
until  some  ten  years  ago. 

Conscious  at  last  of  the  accuracy  of  the  mes- 
sages she  received  and  of  the  invaluable  service 
she  was  fitted  to  render,  through  their  use,  to 
those  in  hopeless  sorrow,  she  invited  a  rigorous 
medical  examination  by  a  distinguished  neurol- 
ogist. The  conclusion  regarding  her  gift,  as 
announced  by  the  physician,  was  that  it  was  *  *  as 
natural  to  her  as  her  speaking  voice,  and  an 
endowment  of  undoubted  importance,  not  to  be 
questioned  or  decried."  Emerging  from  the  ex- 
amination with  this  invaluable  indorsement, 
Mrs.  Vernon  applied  herself  to  the  practice  and 


MRS.  VERNON  41 

perfection  of  her  ^fts.  Her  success  has  justi- 
fied the  patience  whiqh  she  has  expended,  for 
now,  like  an  accomplished  musician,  she  knows 
her  instrument.  She  can  distinguish  the  mes- 
sages from  beyond  from  the  thoughts  of  her 
active  brain  with  almost  faultless  accuracy.  The 
result  of  this  exquisite  accuracy  is  to  preserve 
the  form  of  the  messages  in  all  their  minutest 
details.  Literary  style,  sometimes  of  a  high 
order,  characterizes  many  of  the  messages,  and 
the  precious  bloom  of  personality  is  also  pre- 
served with  all  its  convincing  charm. 

It  is  possible,  in  my  opinion,  to  assert  that 
in  this  accuracy  Mrs.  Vernon  is  preeminent 
among  all  sensitives  endowed  with  similar  gifts. 
Although  capable  of  automatic  writing,  she 
finds  her  powers  of  clairaudience  and  clairvoy- 
ance more  reliable.  She  never  is  entranced, 
nor  does  she  ever  lose  a  perfect  consciousness 
of  herself,  or  her  keen  interest  in  the  use  and 
demonstration  of  her  powers.  She  sits  in  her 
charming  house  and  patiently  listens  to  the  mes- 
sages, repeating  them  precisely  as  if  she  had 
received  them  from  a  telephone.  Tact  and  can- 
dor, her  native  traits,  are  part  of  her  equip- 
ment for  that  extraordinary  service,  never  fail- 
ing her  or  those  who  benefit  by  her  kindness. 
So,  simply,  and  with  no  paraphernalia  of  mys- 
tery, the  phenomenon  of  communication  takes 


42  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

place  before  the  enthralled  spectator.  Grati- 
tude is  too  poor  a  word  to  express  the  apprecia- 
tion of  the  benefits  rendered  by  this  truly  dis- 
interested servant  of  those  who  mourn. 


CHAPTER  ni 

*' Lovely  and  Beautiful  in  Their  Lives,  in 
Death  They  Were  Not  Divided.** 

AN  inherited  incredulity  regarding  the  pos- 
sibility of  communication  between  the  Kv- 
ing  and  the  dead  lies  deep  within  the  minds  of 
men.  That  incredulity  is  persistent,  yielding 
neither  to  the  reliably  reported  evidences  of 
such  communications  nor  to  the  hitherto  pub- 
lished discoveries  of  Psychic  Science. 

The  subconscious  reservoir  holds  ancestral 
denials,  emotional  refusals,  which  rise  in  floods 
to  submerge  the  slowly  growing  edifice  of  be- 
lief. Personal  experience,  many  times  repeat- 
ed, alone  leads  to  personal  conviction. 

But  in  this  slow  process  of  conviction  that 
communication  does  actually  take  place  between 
the  invisible  and  the  visible  world,  no  element 
is  so  effective  as  the  recognition  of  the  char- 
acteristic thoughts  and  modes  of  expression  in 
the  messages  which  seem  to  come  to  us  from 

43 


44  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

the  departed.  This  evidence  is  cumulative  in 
its  convincing  power  and  provides  a  potent 
solvent  for  the  subconscious  or  emotional  in- 
credulity. 

To  communicate  to  the  greatest  possible  ex- 
tent, the  impression  of  dramatic  verity  in  the 
messages  which  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  re- 
ceive from  my  sister  and  my  parents,  I  will  try 
briefly  to  describe  their  characters,  their  per- 
sonalities and  their  lives. 

"She  smiled  and  the  shadows  departed; 
She  shone,  and   the  snows  were   rain, 
And  he  who  was  frozen  hearted 
Bloomed   up    into   love   again." 

— John  Addington  Symons. 

To  describe  my  sister,  of  whom  it  has  been 
said  that  she  was  the  most  regretted,  in  the 
places  which  knew  her,  of  her  generation,  passes 
my  powers,  nor  can  I  put  on  paper  the  radiant 
loveliness  of  her,  whom  just  to  meet  in  pass- 
ing, made  the  spectator  think  that  life  after  all 
must  be  good  and  happy.  Such  was  the  tes- 
timony of  a  stranger,  such  the  influence  of  her 
presence,  which,  to  all  who  had  the  joy  of  her 
affection,  was  a  recompense  for  every  ill. 

My  sister  and  her  twin  brother  were  the 
latest  bom  of  the  children  of  her  family.  Her 
brother,  by  the  fatal  falling  of  a  dead  limb  of 
a  tree,  died  after  a  little  more  than  two  years 


"LOVELY  AND  BEAUTIFUL"  45 

of  their  infantile  existence,  passed  almost  lit- 
erally hand  in  hand. 

My  sister,  after  a  happy  childhood  in  her 
country  home,  flowered  at  sixteen  into  a  very 
remarkable  beauty.  With  a  well-nigh  flawless 
sweetness  of  disposition,  which  had  its  source 
in  a  deep  fountain  of  humanity,  and  a  keen  and 
vivid  intelligence,  she  was  the  comrade  of  one's 
dreams.  Was  there  a  word  of  appreciation  to 
be  uttered,  she  never  failed  to  express  it.  In 
her  sympathy,  her  method  was  rather  to  silence 
complaint  and  point  the  way  to  sunshine.  Thus 
she  built  for  happiness.  She  sat  at  the  mart 
of  joy,  receiving  and  giving  lavishly,  from  the 
early  springtime  of  her  life  until,  in  uncon- 
sciousness, that  life  went  out. 

Although  between  her,  the  youngest  and  my- 
self, the  eldest,  child  there  were  separating 
years,  a  certain  similarity  of  understanding, 
certain  likenesses  to  our  father  made  a  spon- 
taneous sympathy  which  drew  us  together  in 
a  deep  intimacy. 

Her  clarity  of  thought  was  a  natal  gift,  in- 
herited from  our  father,  also  her  kindness  and 
simplicity,  which  was  never  altered  by  a  tinge 
of  affectation  through  all  the  years  when  com- 
pliment and  even  adoration  were  offered  to  her 
like  an  incense.  If  a  voice  expresses  person- 
ality, then  hers,  in  its  clear  ringing  timbre, 


46  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

expressed  her  courage  and  her  unfailing  opti- 
mism. If  a  laugh  tells  of  sincerity  or  of  af- 
fectation, then  hers,  gay  and  genuine  as  that 
of  a  child,  told  of  unspoiled  enjoyment  and  a 
fearless  contentment  with  life. 

She  was  very  tall,  with  a  rounded  slender- 
ness,  and  carried  her  head  high  and  nobly,  like 
our  father.  Eyes  of  clear  hazel,  under  level 
brows,  looked  out  with  an  always  attentive,  al- 
ways comprehending  gaze.  The  rare  modeling 
of  feature  which  makes  for  beauty  of  a  high 
order  was  hers,  but  her  perfect  mouth,  with  its 
exquisite  smile,  expressed  her  best.  Beauty  and 
charm  like  hers  are  opportunities  for  learning 
human  nature,  but  the  human  nature  which  she 
saw  was  always  lovable,  not  only  because  she 
drew  forth  love  in  abundance,  but  because  she 
saw  by  preference  only  the  best  in  men  and 
women.  Thus  she  rarely,  if  ever,  encountered 
disappointment  or  suffered  from  a  lack  of  sym- 
pathy or  appreciation. 

Married  the  day  after  she  had  finished  her 
school,  she  traveled  widely  and  enjoyed  the 
brilliant  opportunities  which  were  offered  to 
her  reigning  beauty.  To  her  children  she  was 
aU  of  life.  Prom  their  childhood  it  was  their 
custom  to  wait  patiently  at  her  closed  door 
for  the  earliest  morning  moment  when,  at  the 
sound  of  the  turning  key,  they  would  rush  into 


"LOVELY  AND  BEAUTIFUL"  47 

her  presence,  feeling  that  the  day  could  then4 
begin. 

Her  life  among  people  drew  her  to  outdoor 
sports  and  to  a  never-ending  series  of  per- 
sonal relations,  offered  to  her  in  many  places 
and  at  all  times  and  seasons.  Her  beautiful, 
firm  hands  worked  exquisitely  in  many  kinds  of 
needlework.  She  sympathized  and  participated 
in  many  charities  and  projects  for  civic  bet- 
terment. She  was  an  intelligent  observer  of 
politics  and  politicians.  She  loved  poetry  and 
romance  in  their  literary  expression,  and  she 
was  her  husband's  ablest  critic.  But  above  all, 
she  was  a  joy  giver  and  her  principal  work 
was  her  own  life  of  helpfulness,  through  joy. 
In  her  latter  years,  unconfessed  personal  char- 
ities have  materially  helped  many  whose  testi- 
mony alone  revealed  what  she  had  done  for 
them.  Thus,  living  until  her  forty-eighth  year, 
in  almost  unaltered  beauty,  she  never  saw  the 
twilight  shadows  of  approaching  age.  To  her 
latest  hour,  love  and  admiration  were  given  to 
her,  and  in  the  West,  where,  after  a  week's  ill- 
ness, she  passed  from  the  sight  of  sun  and  flow- 
ers, flowers  cover  her  grave  by  the  unchanging 
sea;  sunlight  unchanging  shines  on  sea  and 
flowers. 

To  me,  who  was  so  quickly  led  to  hope  that 
she  could  and  did  send  messages  of  her  con- 


48  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

tinned  existence  and  her  unchanging  love,  the 
chance  that  it  might  really  be  she  who  spoke 
was  enongh  to  lead  to  a  full  experiment  of  com- 
munication. Since  that  first  desolate  week  after 
her  departure,  I  now  believe  she  has  spoken 
with  me  in  intimate  mind  to  mind  confessions, 
uncomprehended  by  Mrs.  Vernon,  of  facts  un- 
known to  me.  She  has  argued  with  me  in  her 
interpretation  of  traits  of  character  in  those 
known  to  us.  She  has  given  me  test  after  test 
of  her  identity  which  conform  to  the  strictest 
rules  of  evidence.  Unhappily,  many  messages 
containing  the  most  convincing  proof  of  her 
identity  are  of  too  intimate  a  nature  to  be  pub- 
lished, but  much  remains.  Enough  to  show  that 
she  has  also  wished  to  speak  with  me.  That 
suffices  me,  and  would  lead  me  on  in  my  search 
for  her,  would  sustain  me  even  in  the  darkness 
of  persistent  doubt.  **We  shall  never  be  sepa- 
rated," she  tells  me;  **we  are  nearer  in  some 
ways  than  we  ever  should  have  been  able  to 
be  on  earth.'*  I  can  confirm  these  words.  I 
can  say  **I  have  not  lost  her,"  and  so  thinking, 
I  can  await  the  certainty  of  reunion. 

Our  father  had  his  part  in  the  history  of 
his  country.  His  life  which  began  in  the  east 
had  its  full  development  in  the'  west,  where 
as  an  active  agent  in  the  business  and  political 
growth  of  an  important  city  he  merited  the  re- 


"LOVELY  AND  BEAUTIFUL"  49 

spect  of  his  fellow  citizens  and  served  as  their 
elected  representative  in  both  houses  of  Con- 
gress. His  equipment  for  this  honorable  and 
useful  career  was,  first,  marked  clarity  of 
thought;  next  great  humanity  towards  all  who 
were  connected  with  him  and  a  peculiar  tender- 
ness to  the  poor  and  lowly  and  to  children. 
A  truly  intrinsic  taste,  flowering  unaided  in  the 
busy  western  city,  led  him  to  the  perception  of 
the  simplicity  of  beauty  and  the  beauty  of  sim- 
plicity. This  expressed  itself  in  a  brevity  of 
phrase,  a  remarkable  electicism  of  language. 
Although  surrounded  by  friends  and  relatives 
who  accepted  so-called  evangelical  religion  in 
its  Methodist  form,  he  very  early  revolted  from 
the  faith  which  was  so  satisfying  to  them  and 
assumed  an  attitude  of  doubt,  of  determined  in- 
vestigation which  he  maintained  until  his  death. 
His  library,  collected  during  the  early  years  of 
his  prosperity,  contained  all  the  translations  of 
the  books  of  the  ancient  religions  which  he  was 
able  to  obtain.  The  irreducible  minimum  of 
ethical  truth,  it  was  his  object  to  discover. 
This  minimum,  long  pondered  and  finally  re- 
duced to  an  individualized  collection  of  briefly 
stated  rules  of  conduct,  he  followed  with  a  truly 
religious  sincerity  and  constancy.  Such  was 
our  father,  whose  personal  appearance  with  his 
marked  dignity  of  bearing,  his  tall,  well-bal- 


60  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

anoed  frame,  the  statesman's  head,  the  clear 
and  steady  eyes,  well  expressed  his  innate  no- 
bility. 

Our  mother,  a  descendant  from  ancestors  who 
came  with  Winthrop  to  New  England,  was  al- 
most perfectly  typical  of  its  colonial  society. 
Growing  up  in  the  shadow  of  Williams  Col- 
lege, she  assimilated  the  intensest  form  of  as- 
piration, both  for  religious  and  educational  de- 
velopment. In  a  village  community  dominated, 
as  in  the  early  Plymouth  days,  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  church,  its  social  as  well  as  civic 
center,  religion  was  not  only  duty  but  delight. 
Although  she  rose  at  dawn  to  study  her  "Vir- 
gil," by  the  winter  candle  light,  her  chief  pleas- 
ure was  in  her  church,  where  her  deeply  reli- 
gious and  imaginative  nature  was  exalted  by  the 
weekly  services  and  particularly  by  the  annual 
sessions  of  fasting  and  prayer,  when  services 
were  daily  held.  In  a  letter  to  a  sister  she 
wrote,  on  one  occasion,  that  **she  had  never 
enjoyed  a  more  delightful  season  of  refresh- 
ment. ' '  Her  letters,  preserved  with  her  youth- 
ful journals,  are  written  with  an  exquisite 
chirography,  as  delicate  as  her  flower  painting 
and  her  needlework. 

Equipped  for  her  chosen  occupation  by 
studies  in  the  classics,  pursued  in  company  with 
President  Mark  Hopkins'  daughters,  she  first 


"LOVELY  AND  BEAUTIFUL"  51 

was  a  teacher  in  vine-covered  Maplewood  at 
Pittsfield,  later  in  Kinderhook,  and  finally  in 
the  western  city,  where  she  soon  met  and  mar- 
ried our  father. 

The  deepest  earnestness  in  the  practice  of  her 
religious  duties,  in  solitary  meditation,  in  the 
daily  circle  of  family  prayer,  controlled  and 
guided  her  during  all  her  life. 

Fluent  in  speech  and  eloquent  in  prayer,  she 
was  known  to  be  by  those  who  joined  with  her 
in  intimate  circles  of  religious  sympathy.  Thus, 
religion,  as  she  had  conceived  it  in  a  Puritan 
village,  dominated  her  inner  and  her  outer  life. 
But  her  love  for  her  children,  passionate  and 
anxious,  for  five  died  in  early  youth,  was  an 
accompanying  and  equally  controlling  motive 
power. 

Gentle  of  speech,  ardent  in  her  affections,  and 
possessed  of  a  distinguished  appearance,  she 
had  also  a  widely  ranging  imaginative  faculty, 
a  keen  interest  in  history  and  public  affairs,  and 
a  delightful  humor.  This  humor  it  was  her 
principle  to  suppress  in  the  never  relaxing 
effort  to  lead  her  children  in  the  path  her  feet 
had  trod.  But  the  never  idle  imagination,  the 
tender  sympathies,  broadened  as  the  years  went 
on,  so  that  at  last  when  she  felt  that  her  work 
was  done  she  gave  full  expression  to  her  play- 
fulness and  her  sense  of  comradeship.     The 


6ft  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

once  earnest  instructor  became  a  witty,  gra- 
cious sympathizer  in  pursuits  and  aims,  widely 
different  from  those  which  had  been  her  life- 
long preoccupations. 

Only  two  years  separated  her  from  her  hus- 
band and  by  only  two  years  she  survived  him. 
Dying  at  eighty,  both  of  them,  on  golden  Sep- 
tember days,  her  one  desire  was  to  rejoin  her 
husband  on  the  anniversary  of  his  death.  Two 
days  only  past  the  year  she  lingered,  and  then, 
with  a  smile  of  farewell,  radiantly  confident, 
she  slipped  into  the  unseen. 

Clairvoyant  vision  was  hers  during  her  last 
months,  and  a  singular  emergence  from  the  life- 
long opinions  and  forms  of  speech  which  had 
expressed  her  earthly  incarnation  and  environ- 
ment— an  evidence  that  while  still  lingering 
in  her  fragile  body,  her  soul  was  already 
clothed  in  inunortality.  A  confidence  in  an  end- 
less life  was  the  shining  gift  she  left  her  chil- 
dren in  the  maimer  of  her  death. 


CHAPTER  IV 

**0n  Eaeth  the  Beoken  Aecs — *' 

T  N  transcribing  the  messages  received  for  me 
-'•  by  Mrs.  Vernon,  I  wish  first  to  comment 
upon  the  fact  that  with  ahnost  perfect  uniform- 
ity they  bear  indications  of  an  origin  external 
both  to  her  and  to  myself.  Telepathy  from  my- 
self is  almost  if  not  entirely  absent.  This  may 
be  due  to  my  practice,  followed  after  the  first 
month,  of  asking  definite  questions  which 
elicited  definite  replies  regarding  matters  of 
which  I  was  necessarily  ignorant. 

I  should  also  refer  again  in  this  connection 
to  my  complete  ignorance  of  the  history  of 
Psychic  Science,  of  any  of  the  recorded  inves- 
tigations of  the  Societies  of  Psychical  Research, 
or  of  any  of  the  literature  of  Psychic  Phenom- 
ena at  the  time  when  I  began  my  sittings  with 
Mrs.  Vernon.  The  experiments  in  materializa- 
tion, for  instance,  were  entirely  unknown  to  me 
until  the  summer  of  1919.  The  information  re- 
garding the  construction  of  the  ethereal  world, 
which  was  received  by  Mrs.  Vernon,  was  there- 
fere  quite  new  to  me  and  no  suggestion  from 

53 


54  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

my  own  mind  could  have  influenced  Mrs.  Ver- 
non, alike  ignorant  of  these  experiments,  or  of 
their  illuminating  significance  regarding  this 
unsolved  and  deeply  mysterious  subject. 

I  assume  no  conviction  on  the  part  of  my 
readers  of  the  possibility  of  communication  or 
of  the  facts  of  survival.  But,  to  avoid  the 
prolixity  and  repetitions  of  constantly  recur- 
ring attempts  to  prove  that  these  communica- 
tions are  messages  from  those  who  purport  to 
be  speaking  to  us,  I  will  proceed  on  the  assump- 
tion that  they  are  actual  messages  from  beyond. 

The  marked  lucidity  of  my  sister's  mind,  in- 
herited from  our  father  and  evidenced  through- 
out her  life,  is  shown  in  all  her  messages.  The 
intense  desire  on  her  part  and  on  mine  to  com- 
municate with  each  other  has  apparently  pro- 
vided a  direct  cable  from  her  mind  to  mine. 

The  first  sitting  was  at  Mrs.  Vernon's  house 
in  New  York  on  April  the  11th,  1918,  from  four 
until  half-past  five  in  the  afternoon.  There 
were  present  Mrs.  Vernon,  the  friend  who  had 
arranged  the  meeting  and  myself. 

Mrs.  Vernon  (looking  at  Mrs.  de  Koven) : 
** Health,  somebody's  health  is  in  question. 
As  you  came  into  the  room  I  felt  greatly  de- 
pressed, as  if  somebody's  health  was  in  ques- 
tion." 

(What  was  the  matter?) 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  55 

**A  limited  amount  of  endurance,  very  lim- 
ited." 

(That  is  right,  I  think;  we  tried  to  send  out 
thoughts  of  assistance.    Were  they  received?) 

**  Certain  barriers  to  be  penetrated  in  order 
to  get  through.  To  protect  something  or  some- 
body, some  one  tries  hard  to  protect  some  one 
from  something  as  if  something  threatened. 
The  communicator  is  anxious  about  it.  It  is 
some  one's  health  which  is  suffering  as  the  re- 
sult of  a  certain  action  and  the  communicator 
wants  to  protect  the  person.  F — a  capital  F — 
he  seems  to  want  to  shake  hands.  He  goes 
through  the  motions.  It's  just  that.  I  hear 
the  word  'hands.'  F.  I  hear  again.  Now  I 
have  that  condition  of  discouragement  again, 
just  as  it  was  when  you  first  came  in.  Some- 
body holds  a  torch,  as  if  to  light  the  way  to 
show  which  way  to  turn  to  some  one  who  does 
not  know. 

**  Perplexity  and  confusion.  They  seem  to 
wish  to  disclose,  to  show  me  something ;  it  looks 
a  little  like  a  map  or  a  patchwork  quilt — fancy 
work — ^like  a  cover.  Anyway,  it's  in  pieces, 
they  are  telling  me,  not  one  big  piece,  but  some- 
thing patched  together." 

(What  does  the  communicator  wish  to  have 
done  with  it!) 

**Take  it  away  from  where  it  is  now.    You 


66  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

take  it;  you  to  have  it;  I  want  you  to  take  it. 
It*s  a  woman  now;  she  made  it  and  wants  you 
to  have  it." 

(Is  it  she  who  is  suffering  the  perplexity 
which  you  spoke  of?) 

Mrs.  Vernon :  * '  Now  I  must  listen  very  care- 
fully. She  starts  off  with  a  sentence.  '  In  pur- 
suit of  spiritual  advancement  there  is  peace.' 
She  told  me  to  say  that.  She  evidently  gets  her 
peace  from  that.  The  perplexity  was  earthly 
conditions — ^not  there — she  sees  others  in  per- 
plexity on  earth.*' 

(What  person  is  she  most  anxious  about!) 

*' Something  surrounds  a  person  she  loved 
which  does  not  satisfy  her.  She  holds  out  a 
cornucopia — a  horn  of  plenty,  and  separates 
some  jewelry,  little  pieces  to  be  distributed,  in- 
terwoven pieces.  She  is  trying  to  teU  me  some- 
thing identifying.  It  is  just  that — a  horn  of 
plenty,  that  is  symbolical,  which  holds  some- 
thing to  be  distributed.  It  was  all  together  and 
she  pours  out  the  contents  and  distributes  it, 
her  personal  possessions — different  things  for 
different  ones,  not  of  great  value;  one  looks 
like  a  brooch  in  the  shape  of  a  knot ;  she  is  pick- 
ing this  out  for  you,  I  think.  I  see  *M' — the 
capital  letter  *M.*  Did  anybody's  name  begin 
with  *M'?" 

(No.) 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  67 

"There  is  somebody  connected  with  her  over 
there.  She  says :  *  The  sitter  must  remember 
M.*    It*s  somebody  else  now,  I  hear  Mother. 

*'She  was  insistent  that  I  should  keep  at  it 
with  the  name  Mother,  as  if  with  parental  au- 
thority. 'Something  was  sudden.*  She  tries  to 
demonstrate,  to  tell  about  somebody  else. 
'Soon  over,  premature,  before  it  should  have 
been.  *  They  seem  to  be  together.  M.  is  trying 
to  help  put  their  communications  over  to  me. 
She  says:  'Somebody  is  awake  at  last.'  F — 
they  show  me  F.  again,  together  with  M.  and  it 
seems  to  be  natural  that  M.  should  be  in  charge. 
I  hear  the  word  'brooch.'  It  seems  as  if  that 
were  it.  It's  not  exactly  a  trinket,  'small, 
woven.'  She  evidently  was  fond  of  you  and 
reaches  out  both  her  hands.  She  would  like 
you  to  have  these  things  that  were  closely  asso- 
ciated with  her — a  piece  of  jewelry — some  one 
thing  that  she  wore,  beside  the  patchwork  that 
she  made  with  her  own  hands  and  wants  you  to 
have  also.  She  refers  to  'separation  and  re- 
union.' " 

(Oh!  does  she?) 

"I  don't  know  whether  she  means  previously, 
on  earth,  or  now." 

(Will  you  ask  if  she  felt  assistance  on 
Wednesday  the  3rd  and  was  better,  and,  if  so, 
why  the  help  was  discontinued?) 


68  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

**  When  you  asked  that  before,  she  said — *  bar- 
riers* and  she  says  *  barriers*  again,  the  *  dif- 
ficulties of  being  sure/  " 

(I  want  to  know  if  she  felt  that  the  help  that 
came  to  her  was  from  the  thoughts  of  her  dear 
ones.    Was  she  conscious  that  we  helped  her?) 

**It  may  take  time  to  get  an  answer  to  that. 
She  says:  'Spasms  of  apparent  response,  ral- 
lies, frequently  take  place  in  the  dying.  They 
are  simply  the  last  flickers  of  a  burnt-out  taper 
which  responds  to  the  passing  breath  of  a 
zephyr.*  She  shows  me  a  taper  that  is  burnt 
down,  but  if  you  blow  it  gently  responds  a  little. 
She  felt  the  force  of  your  united  efforts  to 
restore  her,  but  *  remember  this,'  she  says, 
*as  undying  as  the  fountain  of  youth  is  the 
force  of  sincere  affection  directed  to  her  where 
she  is  now  as  on  earth.'  There  is  a  certain 
buoyance  and  happiness  in  spite  of  separation. 
Time  does  not  mean  much  to  them.  The  spirit 
counts  for  more  over  there.  They  feel  the  be- 
reavement, but  there  is  an  uplift  over  there 
that  we  do  not  get  over  here.  I  will  listen  a 
minute  about  the  trinket  she  wanted  you  to  get. 
Something  about  it  *  corresponds  to  something 
that  you  have.  It  corresponds  to  something  or 
resembles  something  that  somebody  else  has. 
There  are  two  and  it  corresponds  to  another 
piece  of  jewelry.    It's  like  a  memento.    Not  so 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  69 

much  for  the  value  it  would  bear,  but  you  would 
like  to  have  it  because  she  owned  it.'  I  hear 
the  word  *  cracked' — something  is  cracked. 
Again  I  get  the  impression  that  there  is  some 
one  about  whose  health  she  is  worried ;  it  is  the 
health  of  someone  she  has  left  behind.  'Dis- 
heartened.' " 

At  the  end  of  this  first  sitting  I  was  intro- 
duced to  Mrs.  Vernon,  who  has  since  told  me 
that  such  a  rush  of  emotion,  such  strong  vibra- 
tions of  love  filled  her  mind  as  I  entered  that 
she  dared  not  look  at  me. 

The  reference  to  ''health"  and  the  danger 
which  threatened  some  one  as  a  result  of  a  cer- 
tain action,  I  think,  concerned  my  husband  who 
was,  at  that  time,  contemplating,  unknown  to 
me,  an  electric  treatment  for  his  persistent 
gout,  which  was  applied  a  week  later,  with  al- 
most fatal  results.  The  "perplexity  and  con- 
fusion" was  a  quite  accurate  perception,  on  the 
part  of  my  sister  regarding  the  condition  of 
health  which  apparently  was  not  subject  to  any 
improvement  by  medicine  or  otherwise.  I  did 
not,  at  the  time  of  the  sitting,  realize,  however, 
that  it  was  my  husband's  health  that  concerned 
her,  as  I  was  ignorant  not  only  of  his  intention 
to  try  electricity,  but  of  any  possible  harm 
which  might  ensue  therefrom.  The  capital  let- 
ter **F"  conveyed  no  certain  meaning  to  me 


60  A  C3.0UD  OF  WITNESSES 

at  first,  but  as  it  appeared  later,  in  conneo- 
tion  with  our  mother,  I  realized  that  it  was 
our  father  who  sent  out  a  vision  of  greeting 
to  me,  and  indicated  that  he  and  her  mother 
were  accompanying  my  sister.  In  subsequent 
sittings  it  is  also  by  the  signal  of  this  capital 
**F"  that  he  announces  his  presence.  Her 
mother's  reference  to  the  sudden  and  prema- 
ture death  of  her  youngest  child  is  entirely 
characteristic,  expressing  also  the  value  which 
is  put  on  a  full  earthly  experience,  the  regret, 
even  in  heaven,  when  it  is  cut  short.  The  mes- 
sages descriptive  of  my  sister's  new  condition, 
her  new  comprehension  of  that  spiritual  ad- 
vancement in  which  she  should  find  peace,  the 
long  and  beautiful  sentence  about  the  flickering 
taper,  are  very  characteristic  of  the  accuracy  of 
Mrs.  Vernon's  method  of  transmission  and  of 
the  symbolic  form  of  many  of  the  messages 
from  beyond. 

In  asking  the  question,  if  she  had  felt  any 
assistance  on  Wednesday,  two  days  before  her 
death,  I  wished  to  know  if  indeed  the  improve- 
ment on  that  day  was  due  to  the  agonized  con- 
centration of  thought  and  prayer  which  I  and 
others  had  sent  out  to  aid  her. 

The  most  notable  point  in  this  first  sitting  is 
that  of  the  description  of  the  ** cover"  bi 
"fancy  work."    Of  this  I  had  no  knowledge 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  61 

whatsoever.  It  was  a  large  cover  for  my  sis- 
ter's own  dining  table  in .    It 

was  made  of  strips  of  linen  and  of  lace,  still  **in 
pieces,"  as  she  stated,  as  it  was  unfinished. 
She  had  never  made  an  article  of  this  kind,  hav- 
ing shortly  before  learned  the  Italian  stitch, 
which  finished  the  linen  borders,  from  another 
sister.  The  table  cover  was  in  the  West  and  I 
was  in  New  York.  Mrs.  Vernon  had  never 
heard  of  my  sister,  did  not  know  me  or  my 
name,  knew  nothing  of  the  table  cover.  The 
proof  of  my  sister's  identity  is  as  perfect  as 
any  proof  could  be.  If  the  strained  hypothesis 
is  urged  that  some  knowledge  of  this  object 
existed  on  the  earth  plane  which,  by  some  en- 
tirely unexplained  and  unexplainable  process 
could  be  transmitted  to  Mrs.  Vernon,  no  hypoth- 
esis can  account  for  the  idea  of  its  altered  des- 
tination, for  those  who  knew  of  it  at  my  sister's 
home,  her  sister  and  her  daughter,  definitely 
intended  it  for  the  latter,  who  meant  to  learn 
the  stitch  and  finish  it  for  herself.  What  more 
natural  than  that  my  sister  should  indicate  the 
objects  she  wished  me  to  have  as  souvenirs  of 
her?  The  other  object,  very  accurately  de- 
scribed, was  a  brooch  in  the  form  of  a  bowknot, 
woven  of  small  pearls.  I  knew  of  this  bowknot 
naturally,  as  she  often  wore  it,  and  recognized 
her  meaning  when  she  said  that  I  had  a  brooch 


est  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

that  resembled  it.  I  have  a  jeweled  bowknot, 
but  did  not  know  that  she  wished  me  to  have 
hers,  which  was,  in  fact,  left  with  all  her  other 
ornaments  to  her  daughter. 

Aside  from  the  comforting  assurances  of  her 
happiness  and  of  ultimate  reunion,  and  of  her 
companionship  with  our  father  and  mother, 
there  is,  in  this  first  communication,  absolutely 
evidential  information  unknown  either  to  me  or 
to  Mrs.  Vernon,  and  there  is  a  prophecy  fulfilled 
of  a  danger  awaiting  my  husband  totally  unsus- 
pected by  me. 

The  first  confirmation  of  the  information 
about  this  table  cover  came  from  her  friend, 
Mrs.  Stillman,  when  she  came  to  see  me  in  New 
York  about  a  fortnight  after  my  sister's  death. 
I  asked  her  if  she  knew  if  my  sister  had  been 
making  a  table  cover.  **Why,  yes,  indeed  I 
do,"  she  said,  **she  spoke  about  it  in  the  post- 
script of  her  last  letter  to  me,  written  the  day 
before  she  went  to  the  hospital."  In  all  prob- 
ability it  was  therefore  the  subject  of  the  last 
sentence  penned  by  her  hand. 

In  the  second  short  sitting  of  the  18th  of 
April,  two  important  facts  emerge;  the  first 
Mrs.  Vernon's  power  of  receiving  messages 
through  what  in  Psychic  Science  is  called  the 
**Pictographic  Method"  and  the  fact  that  my 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  63 

sister,  during  those  first  days,  was  often  near 
me. 

Mrs.  Vernon:  '*I  hear  a  word  which  sounds 
like  Braid,  but  now  I  see  a  water  and  a  lawn 
with  trees.  It  is  a  place  and  now  I  hear  the 
word  'Rented.'  The  name  now  sounds  like 
Brady,  but  I  may  not  have  the  name  correctly. 
Sh*e  is  looking  at  some  rugs,  Turkish  rugs,  and 
shakes  her  head;  she  says  'they  were  offensive 
to  her  tenant.' 

'  *  Now  I  see  her  pointing  to  some  paper  with  a 
black  border  and  she  says  'No  comparison.' 
Do  you  know  what  she  means  by  that?" 

(I  cannot  think  what  she  means.) 

"She  repeats  it  over  and  over  'No  compari- 
son; no  comparison.'  Now  she  says  'I  was 
there.'  " 

My  sister's  place  in  the  country  was  rented  to 
a  Mr.  B who  did  in  fact  make  some  objec- 
tions to  the  furnishing  of  the  house  which  she 
was  not  able  to  understand.  The  evocation  of 
the  place  with  its  lawn  and  trees  and  its  view 
of  the  lake  was  very  accurate.  The  mention  of 
the  rugs  was  an  evident  attempt  to  furnish  an 
identifying  point  to  me. 

As  to  the  black  border  on  the  writing  paper, 
this  was  of  course  symbolical  of  mourning. 
The  remark  ' '  No  comparison, ' '  which  I  did  not 
at  first  remember  or  recognize  in  its  proper 


64  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

connection,  was  instantly  recalled,  when  she 
said  ''I  was  there."  The  evening  previous  to 
this  meeting  with  Mrs.  Vernon,  I  had  gone  with 
a  friend  to  hear  Dr.  Jowett,  when  for  the  last 
time  he  spoke  to  his  people  at  the  Wednesday 
evening  prayer  meeting.  On  the  way  home  in 
the  motor  I  said  to  my  friend,  *'I  lost  my  dear 
parents  but  they  died  in  the  fullness  of  their 
years  and  wished  to  go.  That  grief  was  no  com- 
parison to  this.'* 

If  indeed  the  impression  of  that  thought  was 
recorded  in  my  memory,  the  idea  that  my  sister 
had  been  with  me  and  had  heard  my  words  was 
no  part  of  my  then  comprehension  of  the  fre- 
quent presence  with  us  of  those  whom  we  have 
thought  and  called  ** departed." 


The  28th  of  April  was  Sunday,  and  in  the 
morning  I  sat  with  Mrs.  Vernon  when  soon  my 
sister's  thoughts  were  sent  to  me  in  a  message 
which  proved  that  she  had  received  my  own 
thoughts  as  they  went  out  to  her. 

Mrs.  Vernon:  ** Frankincense  and  myrrh 
wafted  to  me  by  zephyrs  is  the  emanation  of 
my  sister's  deep  affection  for  me." 

Then  immediately  in  a  happy  mood  she  re- 
called to  me  a  golf  match  we  had  played  to- 
gether in  Aiken,  describing  the  golf  course,  and 
referring^  to  an  unusual  recollection  on  my  part 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  65 

of  a  particular  ground  rule,  which  had  enabled 
us  to  win  the  match. 

This  unexpected  turn  in  the  contest  she  called 
a  trick,  a  reference  wholly  incomprehensible  to 
any  one  but  myself. 

Mrs.  Vernon:  "She  asks  if  you  remember 
when  you  and  she  'scrambled  together  over 
rocks  and  sand,  and  where  there  was  also  occa- 
sional water.'    She  speaks  of  a  'trick.'  " 

Then  followed  a  reference  to  a  very  pleasant 
function  of  each  Spring  and  Autumn  when  she 
would  show  me  the  collection  of  hats  she  had 
made  for  the  coming  season.  The  sight  of  her 
lovely  face  in  its  various  frames  would  have 
delighted  a  less  affectionate  spectator  than  my- 
self, who  never  discovered  any  hint  of  reserva- 
tion of  a  like  appreciation  of  my  house  and 
furniture. 

Mrs,  Vernon :  *'I  see  her  pointing  to  a  pretty 
sailor  hat  and  she  is  smiling.  She  says:  'You 
were  always  so  sympathetic  about  my  hats  in 
which  I  was  much  interested,  much  more  sym- 
pathetic than  I  was  about  your  furniture.  You 
have  a  different  trend  of  mind  from  mine.  I 
liked  your  house  but  I  like  to  see  things  finished ; 
I  could  never  go  to  the  foundation  of  things 
or  study  their  ethics  as  you  do.  I  might  have 
been  more  sympathetic  about  your  more  serious 
pursuits. ' 


66  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

**I  hear  N.E.D.    Is  there  a  Ned?" 

(Yes.) 

"She  says :  *  Ned  was  very  complimentary  and 
appreciative.* 

This  short  statement  has  an  evidential  qual- 
ity. Ned  is  a  relative  who  lives  so  far  away 
that  I  rarely  see  him,  yet  I  had  seen  him  a  day 
or  two  after  my  sister's  last  visit  to  me.  At  this 
time  occurred  an  incident  which  aroused  this 
complimentary  and  appreciative  attitude  and 
which  was,  in  my  conviction,  due  at  this  time 
only  to  this  incident.  When  I  saw  him  again, 
some  six  months  later  and  asked  him  if  he  had 
spoken  of  it  to  my  sister,  he  stated  that  he  had 
and  expressed  great  surprise  that  I  should  have 
been  aware  of  their  conversation. 

Mrs.  Vernon :  *  *  I  see  her  holding  out  a  check 
book  showing  three  blank  checks  and  she  holds 
up  three  fingers  and  says  'Transaction.'  This 
refers  to  the  necessity  at  this  time  of  three 
checks  being  sent  to  pay  for  the  memorial  win- 
dow to  her  parents  in  the Church. 

**I  hear  the  word  'Papa.'  Is  her  father 
dead?" 

(Yes.) 

"She  says,  *  Papa's  resentment,'  and  then 
with  her  hands  she  makes  a  gesture  of  blowing 
something  from  her  lips. ' ' 

With  this  characteristic  gesture,  my  lister 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  67 

told  me  that  our  father's  long  unhappiness  due 
to  a  disagreement  with  a  business  associate 
had  vanished  in  the  other  world. 

Like  a  ''tall  flower,"  Mrs.  Vernon  said  my 
beautiful  sister  appeared  to  her,  at  this  delight- 
ful meeting,  as  she  blew  these  charming 
thoughts  from  her  lips  and  filled  the  room  with 
her  own  atmosphere  of  lightness  and  of  gayety. 

* '  A  long  interim, ' '  Mrs.  Vernon  heard  in  fare- 
well, like  a  sigh  of  lament  over  what  must  ap- 
parently be  our  long  separation. 

The  fourth  sitting  on  May  the  2nd  was  in  the 
boudoir  of  my  own  house  in  New  York. 

Mrs.  Vernon:  "I  hear  the  word  'ransack'  and 
she  shows  me  a  box — not  like  a  jewel  box — it  is 
larger.  Now  she  is  opening  it  and  taking  some- 
thing out  of  a  flap,  which  looks  like  a  paper.  It 
can 't  be  a  letter  because  it  is  typewritten ;  I  can 
see  the  letters  through  the  paper. 

(I  wrote  to  my  sister  with  a  typewriter.) 

**Ah!  then,  it  is  a  letter  and  she  says,  *I  en- 
joyed that  letter  very  much  indeed;  I  appre- 
ciated it.' 

This  is  a  very  evidential  point  for  it  told 
me  that  my  sister  had  taken  the  last  letter  I 
had  written  her  to  the  hospital  in  her  letter 
case. 

When  long  months  after  her  death  I  asked 


68  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

the  old  servant  who  had  prepared  her  effects 
for  that  last  journey  if  she  had  known  what 
my  sister  had  done  with  the  last  letter  she  had 
received  from  me,  she  said,  "Oh,  yes,  she  told 
me  that  she  was  taking  it  with  her,  and  would 
answer  it  as  soon  as  she  had  recovered  from 
the  operation/' 

**Now  I  hear  the  word  Tea  over  and  over; 
what  can  it  mean?  Is  it  teacher  or  teaching! 
She  will  not  go  to  anything  else.  (After  a 
long  pause  of  at  least  twenty  minutes)  Now 
she  wants  me  to  look  at  those  roses  on  the  table, 
and  now  she  says  'They  must  be  in  full  bloom 
now.'  " 

The  roses  were  tea  roses  in  a  vase,  given  to 
me  by  her,  and  standing  on  the  table.  What 
was  the  significance  of  this  word  "tea";  what 
that  of  the  remark  ' '  they  must  be  in  full  bloom 
now"?  Only  that  she  was  in  the  room  beside 
us,  seeing  the  tea  roses  and  thinking  that  in 
this  month  of  May  they  were  in  full  bloom  in 

distant .     No  hint  of  the  thought  in 

her  mind  of  the  connection  of  the  word  "tea" 
with  the  roses  dawned  in  Mrs.  Vernon's  mind 
for  that  long  period  of  waiting;  none  was  in 
mine.  But  finally  her  magnetic  force,  exerted 
after  long  delay,  invincibly  turned  Mrs.  Ver- 
non's head  to  the  table  and  the  roses. 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  69 

**Tell  her  that  I  am  with  her  a  great  deal — 
I  have  not  left  her,  I  will  develop  as  she  will 
develop,  don't  let  me  goj  we  shall  never  be 
separated." 

During  all  the  days  which  had  intervened 
since  her  death,  and  the  fifth  sitting  which  oc- 
curred on  the  9th  of  May,  I  had  constantly  dic- 
tated to  my  grief  the  thought  that  it  was  well 
for  her  to  leave  life  when  she  was  still  lovely 
and  beloved.  I  had  recalled  her  declaration 
made  in  the  height  of  her  youth  and  beauty  that 
she  did  not  wish  to  live  after  the  best  of  life 
was  over.  These  thoughts  she  had  received  and 
had  prepared  this  elaborately  constructed  reply. 

Mrs.  Vernon:  "I  hear  Turgenieff.  I  hear 
something  like  the  passage  or  the  flight  of  time ; 
she  is  making  some  sort  of  quotation  from  Tur- 
genieff, I  think : 

**  *The  years  from  twenty  to  fifty  are  the 
flowery  years.  Those  after  fifty,  as  I  have 
often  told  you,  seemed  to  me  very  dull  and 
not  worth  living.  I  do  not  think  so  now. 
Women  like  you  two  may  find  the  years  after 
fifty  just  as  blooming,  if  you  have  the  staff  of 
some  occupation  or  interest.  In  this  way 
you  will  avoid  the  deep  grooves  of  the  mind 
and  will  not  acquire  mental  rust.  You  will 
still  have  magnetism.*  " 


70  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

At  this  point  I  asked  Mrs.  Vernon  to  write 
these  words. 

Mrs.  Vernon :  *  *  Now  they  are  dictating.  *  The 
years  beyond  fifty  may  retain  the  flowery  as- 
pect of  the  period  before  from  twenty  on  to 
fifty.  Women  like  you  two  should  find  as  much 
bloom  in  maturity  as  in  youth  due  to  the  mental 
and  spiritual  staff  provided  by  this  philosophy. 
Interests  of  this  kind  prevent  grooves  and  the 
decline  of  vigor  which  indicates  rust.*  '* 

At  this  point  I  asked  Mrs.  Vernon  if  she 
thought  that  my  sister  could  hear  me  if  I  spoke. 
On  her  affirmative  answer  I  said: 

(Dear,  do  you  hear  me!  And  do  you  know 
that  the  thought  that  you  might  develop  more 
quickly  on  the  other  side  has  been  my  one  con- 
solation?) 

"Tell  Anna  that  as  a  direct  answer  to  her 
thought  I  have  tried  to  put  through  this  com- 
munication." 

My  next  question  was  about  my  husband's 
health  and  her  replies,  characteristically  humor- 
ous and  playful,  show  how  closely  she  had  been 
watching  him;  how  anxious  she  was  to  help. 

(How  about  Reggie?) 

** Reggie's  system  has  been  renovated,  house- 
cleaned;  and  there  is  no  reason  why,  provided 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  71 

he  follows  wise  and  prudent  methods,  he  should 
not  be  permanently  alleviated.'* 

(Are  you  busy;  have  you  anything  to  do?) 

**  As  yet  my  chief  interest  has  been  these  peri- 
odical lapses  into  the  human  again,  preventing 
the  despair  of  absolute  inscrutable  separation. 
Later  on  my  induction  into  spiritual  life  will 
begin,  but  the  solace  administered  by  the  cour- 
teous and  patient  efforts  of  you  two  to  trans- 
late my  messages  has  assuaged  my  grief  ten- 
fold." (Again  reverting  to  my  husband)  ** Im- 
portune Reggie,  divert  his  attention  from 
cracked  ice.    Try  a  substitute." 

"She  is  showing  me  bottles  of  mineral  water 
and  I  see  her  squeezing  the  juice  of  a  lime  into 
a  glass.  She  says  to  use  'the  sharpest  kind 
of  mineral  water.  He  will  say  it  is  a  poor 
drink  but  wholesome.  His  feet  protruded  but 
now  they  are  on  the  floor.  Reiterate  the  fact 
that  calmness  will  help  his  complaint.  The 
difficulty  is  not  fatal  or  serious  but  might  be- 
come so  if  not  mitigated. '  ' '  Accompanying  this 
was  a  medical  diagnosis  of  one  symptom  of  my 
husband's  condition,  quite  accurate,  as  was  the 
perception  of  its  cause.  The  reference  to  his 
feet  being  at  last  on  the  floor  was  also  accu- 
rately perceived,  as  only  the  day  previous  to 
this  sitting  had  he  been  able  to  walk. 

The  reference  to  the  solace  administered  to 


7«  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

her  by  her  conmiunications  with  us,  was  the 
first  of  many  expressive  of  the  same  gratitude. 

On  May  12th,  in  my  boudoir  there  was  evi- 
dence for  the  first  time  of  the  presence  of  the 
group  of  discarnate  members  of  the  English 
Society  for  Psychic  Research,  which  is  directed, 
in  their  control  of  communications  from  the  un- 
seen, by  the  famous  Imperator  of  Mrs.  Piper's 
demonstrations. 

In  this  connection  it  is  pertinent  to  refer  to 
the  fact  that  a  personality  also  appearing  under 
the  name  of  Imperator  communicated  the  very 
important  messages  by  automatic  handwriting 
and  otherwise  to  the  Rev.  Stainton  Moses, 
who  under  the  pseudonym  of  M.  A.  Oxon,  pub- 
lished them  in  a  famous  book  called  ''Spirit 
Teachings."  Much  confusion  in  the  minds  of 
the  students  of  Psychic  Phenomena  has  arisen 
in  regard  to  the  identity  of  Imperator.  His 
real  name,  as  borne  on  earth,  and  given  to 
Stainton  Moses,  was  not  confirmed  in  the  lat- 
ter's  communications  after  death.  A  state- 
ment of  my  sister  indicates  that  Imperator 
is  a  title  such  as  Judge  or  Doctor,  which  is  used 
by  the  ancient  masters  in  the  other  world  who 
control  or  guide  the  communications  between 
that  world  and  ours. 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  73 

**Imperator  dictates.  Specified  communica- 
tors provide  the  subjects. 

''Mother  appears,  she  shows  a  sort  of  cold 
frame,  such  as  covers  flowers,  and  appears  to 
lift  it  as  if  to  disclose  the  flowers  beneath.  She 
uses  the  word  'Reticence'  which  she  says  kept 
her  children  from  completely  understanding 
her.  She  says  also  that  this  Reticence  has 
passed." 

(Our  mother  came  of  Puritan  ancestors  and 
felt  that  it  was  wrong  to  praise  her  children 
overmuch.) 

"I  was  not  so  much  of  a  Puritan  but  that  I 
could  attend  to  having  good  food  and  look  after 
the  wants  of  others." 

This  avowal  was  surprising  to  me,  in  view 
of  her  entire  lack  of  enjoyment  in  the  pleasures 
of  the  table,  and  her  omission  to  mention  any 
particular  intention  of  ministering  to  that  en- 
joyment in  others.  No  want  was  ever  neglected 
in  her  household,  but  a  confirmation  of  her 
statement,  subsequently  to  this  meeting  with 
Mrs.  Vernon,  was  found  among  some  family  let- 
ters, in  many  little  blank  books,  containing 
cooking  recipes  and  carefully  preserved  in  her 
own  delicate  handwriting. 

"Cousin  John  is  with  me." 

This  Cousin  John  was  a  very  distant  relative, 
characteristically  sought  by  our  mother,  who 


74  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

was  always  most  careful  to  preserve  all  family 
connections. 

I  then  asked  her  why  she  had  not  told  her 
family  about  the  Nathan  Dexter  document. 

**I  had  a  certain  parental  hesitation  to  dis- 
close the  primitive  or  elemental  conditions  con- 
cerning his  life  and  occupations.  This  was  not 
exactly  snobbish  as  we  were  nearer  those  con- 
ditions than  you  are  now.  People  feel  differ- 
ently about  those  things.  It  was  stupid  and 
unnecessary. '  * 

I  then  brought  into  the  room  a  photograph 
of  her  house  in  South  Williamstown  and  put  it 
before  Mrs.  Vernon,  asking  the  question. 

(Did  grandfather  buy  this  house  or  did  he 
build  it?) 

"He  converted  to  our  use  the  sturdy  relic  of 
a  predecessor." 

Mrs.  Vernon  (after  a  long  pause) :  *'She  is 
making  me  look  at  the  window  at  the  back  over 
the  kitchen." 

(This  means  that  the  little  addition  was  the 
kitchen,  a  fact  that  I  did  not  know.) 

"She  says:  'That  was  the  window' — and  she 
says  it  many  times.  Now  she  is  showing  me  a 
letter  or  letters  thrown  against  the  window. 
I  can't  imagine  what  she  can  mean." 

It  was  quite  plain  to  me,  finally,  for  I  under- 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  75 

stood  that  this  must  be  the  window  of  her  old 
bedroom  where,  on  the  first  day  of  her  occu- 
pation of  it,  she  had  written  with  a  ring  upon 

the  glass,  ''In  this  room  M E S 

passed  many  happy  hours."  The  premature 
declaration  had  always  amused  her  sisters,  and 
the  little  incident  had  been  repeated  by  her  to 
her  family  as  many  as  forty  years  ago. 

I  append  the  Nathan  Dexter  document,  an  in- 
teresting patriotic  declaration  of  a  soldier  in 
the  Revolution,  discovered  long  after  her  death, 
among  the  family  papers.  I  have  no  means  of 
knowing  what  this  ancestor's  "elemental  occu- 
pation" might  have  been.  I  find  in  it,  however, 
an  unconscious  literary  quality  and  a  fluency 
of  language,  the  source,  in  all  probability,  of  a 
like  fluency  in  her  gracious  speech. 

At  Lanesboro,  Mass.  September  the  19th, 
1843. 

' '  This  short  narrative  is  wrote  at  the  request 
of  my  great  granddaughter  M. —  E —  S —  and 
I  am  the  sixth  generation  from  Gregory  Dexter 
who  came  from  England  and  settled  in  Provi- 
dence in  Rhode  Island  in  1643.  I  was  born  in 
Smithfield  in  Rhode  Island  on  July  the  22nd, 
1759.  And  when  at  the  age  of  sixteen  I  slung 
my  pack  and  shouldered  my  loaded  gun  in  the 
defense  of  my  dear  country  which  was  infested 


76  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

by  a  cruel  and  destructive  inimy  for  seven 
years.  When  at  the  word  of  God  and  the 
Swoard  of  Washington  they  were  made  captive 
and  drove  back  to  their  Infernal  Den.  I  from 
my  youth  have  stood  firm  in  the  shoes  Democ- 
racy and  may  God  bless  my  dear  country  with 
peace  prosperity  and  happiness  until  time  shall 
be  no  more. 

*'The  above  lines  wrote  by  the  aged  infirm 
and  trembling  hand  of  Nathan  Dexter  in  my 
eighty  fifth  year." 

At  the  seventh  sitting  on  the  15th  of  May,  a 
friend,  Mrs.  Horton  who  quite  unexpectedly 
then  exhibited  a  psychic  power  of  a  very  distinct 
order,  accompanied  me.  My  sister  came  at  once, 
with,  to  me,  a  heartbreaking  reference  to  our 
golf  playing  on  the  links  at and  an  ex- 
pression of  regret,  the  only  one  in  all  her  com- 
munications but  deeply  poignant,  for  the  lost 
summers  of  our  constant  companionship. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  ** Flowers  near  a  stream 
in  the  country — far  away,  Indian  name. ' ' 

(This  must  be  the  golf  links  in  our  old  home.) 

''This  pleasant  summer  weather  makes  me 
think  of  it." 

Suddenly  at  this  point,  a  new  presence  made 
itself  felt  overwhelmingly,  the  husband  of  Mrs. 
Horton,  who  received  messages  and  visions 
which  completed  and  confirmed  those  received 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  77 

by  Mrs.  Vernon.  It  was  very  curious  to  ob- 
serve this  double  registering  of  thought  waves. 
One  saw  a  vision  of  a  club  lawn,  the  other  the 
vision  of  some  one  playing  a  game ;  the  evoca- 
tion of  an  identifying  vision  of  a  ball  game  on 
fete  days,  in  the  old  home  of  Mrs.  Horton  and 
her  husband.  The  electric  currents  which  Mrs. 
Vernon  describes  were  experienced  by  my 
friend  with  great  intensity,  giving  a  very  clear 
example  and  confirmation  of  the  electrical  wave 
method  of  thought  communication. 

On  the  morning  of  the  20th  of  May,  I  had,  in 
a  telephone  conversation  with  a  friend,  re- 
marked that  it  would  be  most  interesting  if 
we  could  hear  from  a  mutual  friend  of  ours,  who 
had  died  a  few  years  ago.  Between  the  hour 
of  this  conversation  and  eleven,  when  Mrs.  Ver- 
non came  to  my  house  for  the  eighth  sitting, 
Mrs.  Horton,  who  had  been  present  at  the  sev- 
enth sitting,  entered  my  room  saying,  '*I  have 
a  feeling  that  you  will  hear  from  a  new  person 
this  morning  and  that  you  will  be  very  much 
pleased  and  interested." 

When  Mrs.  Vernon  arrived  she  observed  that 
it  was  sometimes  difficult  to  demonstrate  for 
men,  that  they  were  apt  to  dictate  the  conduct 
of  the  sittings  and  that  there  were  certain  '*mas- 


78  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

culine  inhibitions"  which  were  difficult  to  over- 
come. 

The  first  word  she  heard  when  she  applied 
herself  to  ''listen"  was  the  last  name  of  the 
friend,  of  whom  I  had  spoken  that  morning  on 
the  telephone  and  whom  she  had  never  known 
or  ever  seen. 

Mrs.  Vernon:  '*I  hear  the  name  S .  Don't 

tell  me  the  first  name.  Now,  I  hear  the  capital 
letter — (mentioning  the  initial  of  the  friend's 
Christian  name.)  Now,  I  have  the  impression 
of  laughter  and  gayety,  of  a  very  brilliant 
sparkling  personality  and   she   says, 

"  *I  am  laughing  at  the  unsatisfactory  condi- 
tions down  there.  I  used  to  laugh  in  a  sort  of 
cynical  way ;  I  still  laugh,  but  not  in  exactly  the 
same  way.    I  have  expanded.'  " 

(We  have  missed  you  so  much.) 

**I  really  believe  they  did.  I  was  usually  the 
instigator  of  the  fun  and  nonsense.  It  is  just 
as  much  of  a  comfort  to  talk  to  Mrs.  de  Koven 
as  it  always  was.  I  have  wanted  to  come  be- 
fore, but  have  kept  off  because  I  felt  that  her 
sister  needed  her." 

(Have  you  seen  my  sister?) 

*'Why,  of  course,  she  is  here.  She  is  as 
beautiful  as  ever.  I  always  admired  her  but 
preferred  Anna's  dignified  charm."   (I) 

(What  is  my  sister  doing?) 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  79 

**She  is  aiding  in  the  transportation  of  mes- 
sages and  exchanging  ideas  with  those  who 
perform  this  service  over  here." 

(Can  you  give  us  a  test?) 

* '  My  vegetable  garden  has  been  enlarged,  en- 
croached. '  * 

This  refers,  as  I  have  since  been  informed, 
to  certain  improvements  in  her  place  in  the 
country. 

(Have  you  a  message  for  ?  the  friend 

with  whom  I  have  talked  over  the  telephone.) 

' '  Tell  my  old  friend  that  I  am  so  thankful  to 
see  that  she  is  so  much  better.  Well  done! 
Fine!  so  pleased." 

(What  about  her  brother?) 

"He  is  surrounded  with  a  jumble  of  papers." 

This  was  correct,  as  I  was  later  informed,  as 
this  brother  had  lately  begun  to  write  for  the 
newspapers. 

"I  was  amused  when  I  heard  you  speak  of 
masculine  inhibitions.  Your  sister  has  been 
very  patient  this  morning;  my  only  excuse  is 
that  you  called  me. ' ' 

(Tell  my  sister  that  there  is  not  one  moment 
when  I  am  not  thinking  of  her.) 

** Perennial  affection  like  my  sister's  lights 
the  way  through  eternity." 

Mrs.  Vernon:  "She  is  thanking  me  for  my 
'patience  and  courtesy.' 


80  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

''Some  day  you  yourselves  will  know  what 
this  has  meant  to  me. — Mamma  is  much  softer 
with  me  than  she  was  and  not  quite  so  firm  with 
me.  I  do  not  want  yet  to  see  much  of  Cousin 
John.  They  tell  me  I  will  in  time.  (She  seems 
very  humble  and  gentle.)  I  find  him  uncon- 
genial. There  are  so  many  others  here.  It 
does  not  make  any  difference  if  he  was  related 
to  me  on  earth.  I  have  no  resentment.  I  just 
don't  want  to  see  him  yet.  I  am  so  glad  that 
Reggie  is  doing  better.  I  saw  him  laugh  at 
the  'cracked  ice.'  Reggie  with  his  charm  is 
more  congenial  to  me  than  Cousin  John.  (She 
laughs.)  Why  should  I  be  with  Cousin  John? 
I  would  rather  be  around  here  and  do  whatever 
good  I  can,  so  they  let  me.  I  have  not  reached 
the  holy  stage  where  I  can  agree  to  seeing 
Cousin  John.  Mamma  is  still  struggling  with 
me  spiritually,  she  will  win  out  in  time.  I  see 
Mrs.  Vernon  has  to  go  (she  waves  good-bye) 
I  shall  always  be  on  hand  at  the  sittings  even 
though  I  do  not  always  conmiunicate. " 

The  impression  of  dramatic  verity  in  these 
communications  from  my  friends,  was  exceed- 
ingly strong,  and  would  be  to  all  who  have 
known   them.    The    instant    response    to    my 

thoughts  of  Mrs. which  brought  her  to  me, 

as  if  by  a  telegram,  was  most  surprising  to  me, 
with  my  then  total  ignorance  of  the  rapidity 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  81 

and  certainty  with  which  thought  messages  are 
carried. 

It  is  also  interesting  to  note,  that  Mrs.  S 

heard  Mrs.  Vernon's  remark  about  "masculine 
inhibitions"  as  my  sister  had  heard  my  hus- 
band laugh  when  I  repeated  to  him  her  tactful 
warning  against  "cracked  ice,"  indicating  that 
he  should  avoid  the  beverages  forbidden  by  his 
physician. 

On  May  the  24th,  the  statement  in  the  sixth 
sitting  that  Imperator  and  his  group  were  con- 
trolling Mrs.  Vernon's  communications  was 
confirmed.  In  the  group  of  those  members  of 
the  English  and  American  societies  for  Psychic 
Research  who  apparently  immediately  recog- 
nized the  determination  on  the  part  of  myself 
and  my  friend  to  communicate  and  had  there- 
fore assisted  her,  are  Mr.  Myers,  Dr.  Hodgson, 
Mr.  Pelham,  and  Edwin  Friend. 

Mr.  Friend  was  in  the  act  of  carrying  records 
of  Mrs.  Vernon's  communications  to  the  Eng- 
lish Society  when  he  was  lost  with  the  Lusi- 
tania.  He  had  therefore  known  Mrs.  Vernon  in 
life,  and  is  often  the  spokesman  of  this  group. 
Mrs.  Vernon  states  that  since  his  interest  in 
these  matters  has  beenprosecuted  from  the  other 
side,  she  recognizes  his  control  of  the  com- 
munications which  she  receives  and  the  com- 


est  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

municators  who  approach  her.  He  has  made 
himself  her  guardian,  perfectly  protecting  her 
from  intrusion  by  the  strange  and  mischievous 
personalities  who  often  attempt  to  disturb  and 
arrest  the  communications  of  other  psychics. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my  sister : '  *  The  contribu- 
tion of  the  family  collectively  to  the  war  tax 
represents  a  fine  memorial  to  Papa.  Earthly 
achievements  indicating  conscientious  and  up- 
right effort  teach  us  over  here  even  after  our 
passing  through  the  medium  of  telepathic  com- 
munication. Papa's  upright  efforts  there  di- 
rect toward  him  a  great  many  appreciative 
thoughts  which  reach  and  affect  him  here. 
Thought  is  a  power,  more  so  over  here  than 
with  you.  I  am  touching  a  little  upon  this  phi- 
losophy because  I  know  my  sister's  mind." 

(Does  she  know  my  thoughts?) 

"Absolutely  whenever  I  choose.  (Resum- 
ing her  previous  subject.)  Those  thoughts  do 
not  pander  to  egotism ;  not  in  this  connection  do 
we  value  them,  but  they  contribute  to  and  up- 
hold the  value  of  integrity.  ...  It  is  difficult 
to  describe  how  the  viewpoint  changes  over 
here.  We  have  a  different  idea  of  proportions. 
In  the  company  of  benign  spirits,  the  object 
seems  to  be  individual  development — (I  should 
say  in  this  company) — the  obliteration  of  sel- 
fish and  egotistical  desires,  and  above  all  an 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  83 

almost  divine  toleration  of  human  weaknesses. 
I  am  learning  or  trying  to  learn  these  things. 
When  the  curtain  goes  down  on  a  play  one 
does  not  disturb  oneself  about  what  goes  on 
behind  the  scenes.  As  far  as  I  am  concerned 
the  curtain  is  down,  my  little  play  is  over. 
Anna  thought  that  I  played  the  star  role,  and 
I  must  say  that  I  regret  not  being  able  to  finish 
my  career,  but  I  am  learning  with  your  ( I) 
help  to  give  spirituality  its  proper  weight.  Our 
sister  must  of  necessity  in  the  near  future  read 
and  think  a  great  deal,  and  I  would  like  to  in- 
terest her  more  in  this  phase  of  existence  as  it 
is  like  a  sturdy  raft  to  a  shipwrecked  mariner. 
I  can  almost  hear  them,  saying  that  she  must  be 
changed  to  be  like  that,  but  this  is  a  reflection 
from  those  who  are  teaching  me.  This  is  what 
I  am  being  taught,  I  still  have  a  good  many 
human  traits,  an  abiding  detestation  of  funere- 
ally religious  people.  Over  here  there  is  none 
of  it.  Not  a  bit  of  it — ^not  in  the  particular 
group  with  which  I  have  been  associated. 
There  is  merriment  and  happiness  and  light- 
heartedness  with  the  greatest  possible  degree 
of  spirituality.  All  spirits  are  not  like  that;  I 
am  in  contact  with  a  group  of  very  high  devel- 
opment." 

(Do  you  sleep  and  what  do  you  do?) 

"We  divide  time  between  consultations  as 


84  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

to  the  best  methods  of  communication  and  re- 
joicing over  satisfactory  results.  And  what  we 
call  charitable  incursions  to  other  planes  to  up- 
lift and  console  despairing  and  lonely  souls. 
This  group  which  has  control  of  these  veridical 
communications  is  a  very  ancient  one,  and 
therefore  only  privileged  newcomers  are  al- 
lowed to  enter  it.  There  is  no  taint  of  dishon- 
esty, of  a  desire  to  pose,  of  material  gratijQca- 
tion.  Also  no  intellectual  inhibitions  in  the 
group  around  me.  This  group  of  controls  is 
a  wonderful  group.  It  is  the  Imperator  group, 
and  it  has  been  supplemented  by  such  a  man 
as  Frederick  Myers  and  Edwin  Friend  whose 
youthful  vigor  of  mind  has  inveighed  against 
untoward  influences." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  Frederick  Myers:  "Mrs. 
de  Koven's  sister  seems  to  have  grasped  the 
meaning  of  affairs,  with  unusual  lucidity.  Has 
resigned  herself  to  conditions  and  is  con- 
forming herself  in  every  possible  way  to 
methods  which  will  enhance  her  spiritual  de- 
velopment. With  amazing  lucidity  she  has 
grasped  the  conditions.  Most  people  who  come 
over  suddenly  would  say  *  I  will  still  try  to  exert 
my  influence,  I  will  not  leave  the  earth.'  That 
would  be  human.  Not  she — ^her  intellectuality 
has  grasped  that  it  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to 
attempt  it." 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  85 

Mrs.  Vernon  remarks  that  it  may  be  egotistic 
but  that  she  thinks  that  this  opportunity  to 
communicate  has  helped  her. 

Frederick  Myers :  "It  is  not  egotistic;  there 
is  no  doubt  but  that  you  have  helped  her  very 
much. ' ' 

The  first  message  in  this  sitting  regarding 
the  "collective  contribution  of  the  family  to 
the  war  tax"  has  a  high  evidential  significance. 
Unknown  to  me  the  directors  in  the  Chicago 
Company  in  which  I  am  a  stockholder  had  pur- 
chased, just  before  this  sitting,  a  large  number 
of  Liberty  Bonds.  My  first  knowledge  of  this 
came  from  my  sister. 

At  the  tenth  sitting,  on  the  28th  of  May,  my 
sister  conversed  with  me  in  a  language  of  such 
deep  intimacy,  that  it  not  only  removed  my  last 
lingering  subconscious  doubt  but  convinced  a 
number  to  whom  I  read  this  record  and  who 
had  known  her  well,  of  the  possibility  of  com- 
munication. In  this  interview,  she  discussed 
certain  traits  of  character  in  those  connected 
with  us,  and  disagreed  with  me  in  her  conclu- 
sions, finally  convincing  me  by  references  to 
incidents  which  proved  her  argument.  Mrs. 
Vernon  knew  nothing  of  the  persons  discussed 
nor  did  she  understand  the  significance  of  my 
sister's  words.    Unfortunately  it  is  only  possi- 


86  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ble  to  relate  this  incident,  without  giving  the 
details.  The  fact  in  regard  to  which  all  testi- 
mony agrees  that  personality  is  at  first  com- 
pletely unchanged,  was  very  clearly  shown. 

Mrs.  Vernon:     **C excels  in  motherly 

duties  and  approves — ^I  have  not  mentioned  the 
others.  I  have  concerned  myself  in  proving 
my  existence  to  you.  Tell  Nan  that  I  have  a 
little  idea  of  Mame's  disapprobation  of  me.  I 
was  not  spiritual,  I  wielded  a  great  power,  and 
it  was  a  temptation  to  use  it.  Mamma  did  not 
understand  me,  as  she  never  held  the  power 
that  I  had ;  it  would  not  have  been  human  not  to 
use  it.  She  was  not  beautiful  as  I  was.  I  am 
simply  stating  facts.  It  isn't  egotistical  now 
that  I  am  gone.  I  am  simply  talking  it  over 
with  you  and  Anna.  This  is  also  characteristic 
of  me." 

(Do  you  remember  that  during  our  long  inti- 
macy I  have  made  two  remarks  that  were  cal- 
culated to  hurt  you?  And  do  you  know  how 
much  I  regret  them!) 

"But  yet  it  was  a  perfectly  correct  statement. 
I  grew  to  think  so  many  years  ago.  In  both 
cases  Nan  was  right.  Her  influence  directed 
me  in  the  decision  which — I  took.  I  never  ad- 
mitted it,  but  it  was  so.*' 

(Does  she  know  my  love  for  her;  how  I  think 
of  her  every  moment?) 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  W 

'  *  Emanations  from  that  affection  have  upheld 
and  comforted  me  through  what  would  other- 
wise have  been  a  period  of  anguish." 

(Was  not  the  intimacy  between  us  always 
very  deep  and  satisfying?) 

' '  Two  blossoms  on  the  same  stalk  may  vary ; 
we  did  not ;  we  were  like  twin  roses  on  the  same 
stem;  we  were  so  in  accord;  if  the  wind  blew 
roughly  over  me  she  felt  it. '  * 

In  my  sister's  statement  that  she  had  "many 
years  ago"  grown  to  agree  with  the  first  of  the 
remarks  I  had  made  to  her,  was  so  expressed 
that  it  was  perfectly  certain  that  she  knew  what 
the  remark  was  to  which  I  had  referred,  and 
this  admission  was  the  first  knowledge  that  I 
have  ever  had  of  that  agreement.  The  remark 
was  made  over  twenty-five  years  ago  and  never 
referred  to  but  once  between  us.  Her  refer- 
ence to  the  second  time  when  I  had  wounded 
her  did  not  concern  the  remark  I  had  in  mind 
when  I  asked  the  question.  It  did  refer  to  an 
incident  made  perfectly  clear  in  her  expression, 
and  her  statement  contained  information  quite 
new  to  me.  Mrs.  Vernon  has  never  had  any 
idea  of  the  significance  of  the  conversation. 

The  first  message  in  this  communication  re- 
ferred to  a  member  of  her  family  who  was,  soon 
after  her  death,  taking  care  of  the  younger  chil- 
dren.   The  approbation  of  a  certain  course  of 


88  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

proceeding  of  which  she  had  known  was  cor- 
rectly stated,  as  was  the  care  of  the  children. 
In  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  it  is  she  who 
has  first  informed  me  of  the  thoughts  and  oc- 
cupations of  members  of  our  family  who  are 
distant  from  me. 

At  the  sitting  of  the  4th  of  June  my  sister's 
deep  depression  over  the  unhappiness  of  those 
she  had  left  behind  was  very  evident. 

Mrs.  Vernon:  **I  am  very  unhappy  over  the 
children.  They  are  so  unhappy — somebody  cry- 
ing on  a  little  tear-stained  pillow.  The  con- 
dition is  so  unhappy,  I  have  to  express  it.  So 
much  unhappiness  in  my  family,  I  cannot  help 
but  be  weighed  down  by  it.  Hardly  equal  to  a 
test." 

(Tell  me  if  your  twin  brother  has  grown  up?) 

*'He  presents  a  radiant  aura,  he  defends  me 
from  impertinent  spirits,  he  paraphrases  my 
thoughts  for  me ;  it  is  all  so  different  here  and 
experience  counts  for  a  great  deal.  He  is  in 
loving  attendance  on  me  now.  In  a  way  we  are 
really  very  happy,  because  it  is  so  peaceful. 
No  social  amenities  to  speak  of;  no  social  ene- 
mies at  all.  One 's  development  determines  one 's 
surroundings,  and  the  only  snobs  ( !)  are  those 
who  dislike  spiritual  regulations.    They  thrust 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  89 

their  egotistical  auras  before  them  and  are 
easily  eluded." 

(Is  it  like  the  world  at  all ;  are  there  hills  and 
streams?) 

' '  Every  physical  and  material  manifestation 
is  plainly  discernible  from  here,  inviting  those 
whose  choice  leads  them  to  hills  and  streams  to 
indulge  it.  There  are  symbols  of  hills  and 
streams.  It  is  a  world  of  symbols,  very  difficult 
to  describe  to  the  material  mind.  The  psychic 
symbol  is  the  nearest  approach  to  it  of  any- 
thing the  human  imagination  is  capable  of. 
Eemember  it  is  the  life  of  the  soul,  and  there- 
fore intangible,  but  nevertheless  exquisitely 
lucid,  not  indistinct,  one  might  almost  say  lurid. 
Therefore  it  is  advisable  to  be  very  careful 
what  symbols  you  choose.  Undeveloped  souls 
are  transported  by  symbols  of  wine  glasses  and 
material  gratifications.  They  derive  an  almost 
material  gratification  from  these.  More  devel- 
oped inhabitants  here  prefer  to  dwell  upon 
mental  pictures  of  an  uplifting  character,  the 
glory  of  spirituality  pervading  the  universe, 
with  beneficence  in  which  they  bask. ' ' 

(Is  there  a  special  locality  to  which  they  re- 
turn?) 

''We  do  inhabit  the  ether,  we  are  ethereal 
beings,  we  can  preside  at  the  conjunction  of  sun, 
moon  and  stars  if  we  choose.    The  earth  at- 


90  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

tracts  most  of  those  in  my  realm  because  we  all 
have  loved  ones  there,  but  more  ancient  souls 
prefer  the  Hebrides,  Pleiades,  Hesperides." 

(Are  you  happy?) 

**We  float  in  the  ether." 

(Can  that  be  a  happy  condition?) 

*'It  is  a  superlatively  happy  condition  to 
those  who  have  found  their  souls,  not  surely  for 
the  materialists." 

(Is  there  a  spiritual  body?) 

**  We  can  assume  at  will  the  semblance  of  our- 
selves.   Mrs.  S told  you  that  because  she 

knew  it  would  please  you  she  remembered  how 
proud  you  were  of  my  looks.  Seeing  the  im- 
portance of  spiritual  development  over  here, 
we  marvel  at  the  neglect  of  it  over  there.  The 
intelligent  ones  recognize  it  and  attempt  at 
once  to  develop.  The  stupid  ones  hang  on  to 
the  earthly  symbols." 

(Do  you  know  what  Summerland  is  which 
Raymond  speaks  of?) 

**Do  you  remember  one  day  when  we  were  on 
the  lawn,  and  the  children  were  playing,  and 
when  we  had  no  idea  of  anything  in  the  future 
but  happiness  ?  It  is  like  that.  It  is  like  youth 
and  childhood,  and  the  faith  in  a  happy  future. 
I  have  seen  a  place  like  that — ^but  as  yet  it 
seems  empty.  When  whole  families  come  over, 
when  they  are  all  united,  there  are  all  sorts  of 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  91 

pleasant  conditions.  The  air  is  filled  with  a  sort 
of  happy  expectancy.  I  am  not  ready  for  it 
yet." 

(Will  you  be  happier  when  I  come?) 

*'0h  my!  yes,  that  would  mean  companion- 
ship, the  uplift  of  affection,  the  tie  of  associa- 
tion, the  assuaging  of  the  grief  of  separation. 
Mamma  is  still  severely  pursuing  spirituality; 
Anna  and  I  would  pursue  it  with  a  little  bit  of 
humor.  She  is  good  as  gold,  chastened  and 
everything  which  is  pure  and  highly  developed. 
Papa  beamed  a  welcome,  and  held  out  hands  as 
if  to  support;  has  supported  me  much  more 
than  Mamma,  a  perfect  rock." 

(Did  Papa  like  the  book  I  wrote  after  he 
died?) 

Instantly  Mrs.  Vernon  perceived  my  father's 
presence  and  heard : 

F:  *'I  always  said  that  Anna The  book 

made  its  impression  there  but  other  achieve- 
ments have  made  their  impression  over  here." 

(Do  you  like  my  house?) 

"A  beautiful  structure,  filled  with  many 
beautiful  things,  a  tribute  to  her  taste.  Tell 
Anna  that  I  consider  that  in  the  game  of  life 
she  has  scored  well  and  that  her  great  affection 
for  her  sister  has  been  one  of  her  greatest  com- 
forts over  here." 

(Can  you  tell  us  about  the  war?) 


92  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

**  Around  Toul  lies  the  solution.  Britannia 
may  rule  the  ocean,  America  will  rule  the  land. 
Not  dominions,  but  Americans  high  principles 
in  this  war  will  make  her  a  power  greater  than 
she  was  before.  Otherwise  criss  cross  (hands 
moving  back  and  forth).  The  Americans  should 
not  get  all  the  credit,  the  others  have  borne 
the  brunt.  It  should  be  a  hand  shake  all 
around.  Persistency  wins  and  Heaven  knows 
we  are  aU  persistent  enough.'* 

The  date  of  this  communication  was  the  4th 
of  June,  1918,  before  any  advance  of  the  Amer- 
ican forces.  The  reference  to  the  concentra- 
tion of  Americans  at  Toul  is  notable  as  well  as 
the  statement  of  his  intense  interest  in  the 
progress  of  the  war  and  the  apparent  coopera- 
tion with  the  efforts  of  his  countrymen. 

A  month  elapsed  between  the  eleventh  sitting 
and  the  twelfth  when  I  saw  Mrs.  Vernon  at  the 
Copley  Plaza  Hotel  in  Boston,  first  in  the  morn- 
ing and  again  in  the  afternoon  of  the  6th  of 
July. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my  sister :  *  *  The  compen- 
sation was  great  for  my  lack,  for  whatever  was 
lacking  in  my  life  I  had  a  compensation  in  the 
affection  which  Anna  gave  me.  She  was  like 
a  rock.  I  could  always  know  that  she  was  there. 
(Shows  an  image  of  a  swimmer.)    But  although 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  9S 

I  sometimes  floundered  I  always  came  back  to 
her  and  rested  my  feet  upon  this  rock.  She 
knew  that  it  was  not  so  much  that  I  swam  away, 
but  there  were  currents  and  eddies  which  en- 
ticed me  and  so  I  floundered  about,  but  after 
a  while  I  came  back. 

''Even  after  my  passing  her  interest  in  this 
provides  the  rock  for  me  to  stand  on.  (Shows 
a  picture  of  a  lovely  wide  and  sunlit  beach.) 
There  were  other  bathers  who  called  me  and  I 
enjoyed  myself  for  a  while,  but  I  tired  of  it 
finally  and  came  back.  The  frivolity  of  it  en- 
ticed me  and  I  indulged  myself  in  it,  but  she 
was  always  there,  as  firmly  established  as 
ever." 

(Does  mother  see  her  children  who  died  long 
ago?) 

''Difficult  to  describe  conditions.  Children 
who  die  like  that  are  in  a  different  realm.  One 
can  visit  it;  you  can  see  them.  (Points  a  long 
way  off.)  They  have  not  been  compelled  to 
strip  themselves  of  earthly  guile.  You  must 
strip  yourself  of  earthly  attributes  to  spend 
much  time  with  them.  Mamma  can,  as  she  had 
fewer  earthly  attributes.  I  can  sometimes,  but 
as  yet  I  have  been  occupied  with  communica- 
tion. I  have  not  spent  as  much  time  with 
Mamma  as  you  would  have  thought.  Mamma 
gravitates  between  the  children's  realm  and  me. 


94.  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

She  is  a  sort  of  derrick.  I  must  say  that  she 
has  been  a  wonderful  help.  But  she  is  not  as 
much  interested  in  these  transcendental  com- 
munications as  I  am." 

(Do  you  see  Dr.  Hodgson,  George  Pelham 
and  the  others  of  the  Psychical  Research 
group?) 

"Yes,  indeed,  I  see  that  group.  They  allow 
me  to  spend  all  the  time  with  them. ' ' 

(Do  you  know  that  I  do  nothing  but  read 
about  the  subject?) 

"Yes,  I  have  seen  her.  Anna's  interest  is 
wonderful  and  she  has  a  great  place  to  fill  in 
spreading  this  knowledge.  Her  interest  does 
not  surprise  me.  To  paraphrase  the  old  ex- 
pression 'Handsome  is  as  handsome  does.' 
Anna  does  as  Anna  is." 

(Did  you  speak  to  me  in  the  Library?) 

"I  did  my  very  best;  hers  is  a  peculiar  phase 
and  I  had  to  use  an  entirely  different  set  of 
vibrations. ' ' 

This  refers  to  a  message  given  me  by  an  offi- 
cial of  the  Public  Library  in  Boston,  who  had 
often  occupied  herself  in  searching  references 
for  me.  This  official  has  certain  mediumistic 
powers  and  did  apparently  get  a  message  from 
my  sister,  who  told  her  that  she  was  very  near 
me.    She  heard  my  name  repeated  many  times 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  96 

and  finally  asked  me  if  this  was  my  Christian 
name. 

In  the  afternoon  I  asked  two  questions  which 
our  sister  had  wished  me  to  send  through  Mrs. 
Yemon  to  the  mother  of  a  friend.  This  mother 
has  been  dead  for  a  number  of  years.  The  ques- 
tions were  unintelligible  to  my  sister,  to  Mrs. 
Vernon  and  to  me.  The  original  propounder 
of  these  questions  was  also  unknown  to  Mrs. 
Vernon  and  to  me,  and  she  was  in  California. 
I  had  no  hope  that  any  replies  could  be  ob- 
tained, but  Mrs.  Vernon  thought  otherwise. 
The  questions  were: 

1.  How  shall  I  communicate  with  my 
mother? 

2.  How  shall  I  fulfill  my  promise  to  my 
mother? 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  the  answer  to  the  first 
question : 

' '  Through  a  developed  psychic,  through  Mrs. 
P.  if  she  goes  through  Chicago." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  the  answer  to  the  second 
question : 

''Something  overturned,  since  this  promise 
was  made.  (Vision  of  the  crank  of  an  automo- 
bile turning;  something  turning  over;  an  auto- 
mobile turnover.)  Tell  Mary  to  patch  it  up 
and  go;  she  will  understand  if  you  say  this." 


96  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

The  two  replies  were  transmitted  by  letter 
immediately  to  my  sister,  who  in  turn  sent  them 
to  her  still  anonymous  friend.  The  replies 
were  both  significant,  particularly  the  second. 
The  lady  in  question  had  in  fact  been  over- 
turned in  her  automobile,  which  had  rolled  over 
twice,  exactly  as  Mrs.  Vernon  had  seen  it.  She 
had  been  driving  it  herself  and  with  her  daugh- 
ter was  severely  injured.  The  concluding  sen- 
tence, *  *  Tell  Mary  to  patch  it  up  and  go, ' '  was 
the  Erection  as  to  how  she  should  fulfill  her 
promise  to  her  mother,  as  it  concerned  her  hesi- 
tation to  go  to  visit  a  family  connection  with 
whom  her  relations  had  not  been  harmonious. 
This  explanation  was  sent  me  by  another  sister, 
who  stated  that  her  friend  was  entirely  satis- 
fied with  the  result  of  her  attempt  to  reach  her 
mother  and  to  receive  her  advice. 

It  is  superfluous  to  observe  that  ''thought 
transference"  is  eliminated  from  this  incident, 
in  its  popular  interpretation.  Thought  trans- 
ference it  certainly  was,  from  a  mother  to  a 
daughter,  through  three  intermediaries,  totally 
ignorant  of  the  significance  of  at  least  the  sec- 
ond question  or  its  answer. 

My  sister  died  from  pneumonia,  following  an 
operation  for  appendicitis.  She  had  a  slight 
cold  at  the  time  the  operation  was  performed, 
which  seemed  of  imminent  necessity.    A  recur- 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  97 

ring  infection  of  the  antrum,  which  was,  how- 
ever, not  acute  at  the  time,  was,  according  to 
the  following  message,  an  element  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  pneumonia. 

(K  the  operation  had  been  delayed  until  you 
had  recovered  from  your  cold,  would  the  result 
have  been  the  same?) 

Mrs.  Vernon:  ** Functional  sections  were  in- 
fected, causing  improper  circulation  which 
caused  my  death.  But  surgical  pneumonia  is 
one  of  the  vicissitudes  of  surgery.  Don't  grieve 
over  the  spilt  milk,  but  rather  rejoice  at  the 
discovery  of  a  permanent  reunion.  It  might 
have  occurred  without  the  antrum.'* 

(Are  you  really  near  me?) 

*  'I  am  in  the  air  with  you.  I  am  in  the  same 
ether.  It  is  like  being  in  a  room  above  another ; 
if  one  is  listening  for  messages  one  may  per- 
haps hear  them.  It  is  as  diflScult  to  communi- 
cate as  to  hear  from  one  room  to  another  some- 
times. The  fact  of  the  awareness  of  the  two 
helps.  If  you  had  not  been  waiting  and  listen- 
ing, I  could  not  have  made  myself  heard.  We 
like  the  word  awareness." 

(You  said  that  Dr.  Hodgson  would  manifest 
in  the  library;  will  you  tell  me  what  that 
meant?) 

"The  same  group  of  controls  tries  to  catch 


98  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

the  attention  of  every  medium  and  this  name 
stuck  in  the  psychic's  mind.'* 

(Who  is  Imperator?) 

"Psychical  researchers  there,  here  they  hang 
out  the  shingle — Imperator.  Psychical  re- 
searchers on  earth  compile  volumes,  look 
through  volumes;  that  means  research.  The 
Imperator  group  deduct  and  dictate,  but  only 
by  means  and  through  the  medium  of  thoughts, 
and  as  no  material  records  are  kept,  they  can- 
not be  researchers." 

(I  think  that  my  sister  would  like  to  see 
W.  E.) 

Again  almost  instantly  the  wireless  message 
was  received  and  the  friend  with  whom  I  had 
discussed  matters  literary,  during  a  brief  visit 
to  this  country,  over  25  years  ago,  came  at  our 
call,  with  his  old  phrases,  his  old  similes,  even 
his  old  trick  of  holding  his  head  to  one  side 
while  "considering.*' 

Mrs.  Vernon  saw  the  vision  of  a  crystal  ball, 
in  a  walled  garden,  beautifully  clear,  yet  reflect- 
ing all  the  colors  of  the  spectrum. 

*'F. — ^We  were  great  friends  (vision  of  writ- 
ing). She  wrote  to  me.  Suddenly  it  snapped. 
(His  death  from  heart  failure.)  She  always 
encouraged  me ;  never  said  it  was  poor  stuff.  * ' 
(His  poetry.) 

(Are  you  happy?) 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  99 

"Yes,  very  happy,  but  would  have  been  hap- 
pier had  I  finished  it  out.  The  symbol  de- 
scribed our  friendship.  F wonderfully  pure, 

yet  vivid  and  full  of  color.  We  do  have  regrets 
if  we  do  not  finish  our  work.  I  could  have  done 
better  work,  a  little  bit  of  alloy  in  the  otherwise 
pure  gol(i.'* 

(Have  you  anything  to  do?) 

'*0h!  yes,  I  am  occupied  all  the  time.  One 
can  teach,  do  missionary  work.  If  you  go  over 
as  a  poet,  you  train  poets,  and  come  back  to 
try  and  inspire  poetry.  We  do  not  do  any  con- 
crete thing;  we  try  to  make  people  happy,  and 
our  condition  depends  upon  our  spiritual  de- 
velopment." 

(Shall  I  send  a  message  to  your  sister?) 

Mrs.  Vernon  saw  him  holding  his  head  to  one 
side  and  ''considering." 

"I  have  been  very  unhappy;  earthly  career 
unsatisfactory.  Just  missed  it ;  adored  mental 
companionship.  I  would  like  to  express  again ; 
so  others  feel,  whose  earth  careers  were  un- 
satisfactory." 

(Is  there  reincarnation?) 

"There  is  an  inextinguishable  vital  spark, 
which  while  partaking  of  the  universal  whole, 
separates  itself  at  intervals  for  the  purpose  of 
gleaning  and  acquiring;  this  effort  is  called  re- 
birth." 


100  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

(Do  we  remember  in  the  final  state  all  our 
successive  existences?) 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  the  continuance  of  the 
subject  of  his  last  sentence. 

* '  This  accounts  for  the  preeminence  of  some 
and  the  insignificance  of  other  souls.  After  the 
receding  of  the  whirlwind  we  gaze  with  dismay 
upon  the  debris ;  if  one  wishes  to  reinstate  one- 
self, and  correct  errors  one  is  given  the  oppor- 
tunity. I  have  not  paused  long  enough  to  put 
this  in  more  beautiful  language.  After  the 
whirlwind  you  go  out  to  repair. 

(Do  those  who  are  satisfied  go  back?) 

*'It  is  not  given  to  all  to  choose,  the  repair- 
,  ers  go  back.'* 

In  answer  to  the  question  as  to  the  final 
memory  of  the  past  reincarnations  **If  the  in- 
terest holds  or  the  intellect " 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my  sister,  who  here  joined 
in  the  conversation. 

**  Just  imagine  Anna  De  Koven  reading  'Old 
Mother  Hubbard'  for  an  afternoon's  amuse- 
ment.  You  will  not  find  it  interesting  to  go 
back.  When  you  are  a  fully  developed  seventh- 
heaven  individual,  all  things  are  possible.  Very 
few  people  are  interested  or  care  enough  to  look 
back  over  the  past  when  they  were  undeveloped 
souls." 

Mrs.  Vernon  said  at  this  point  that  she  was 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  101 

conscious  of  the  presence  of  a  group  of  person- 
alities. They  were,  in  fact,  together :  my  sister, 
my  poet  friend,  and  finally,  entering  with  a 
laugh,  in  which  Mrs.  Vernon  said  she  felt  in- 
clined to  join  herself,  the  same  friend,  Mrs. 
S ,  who  had  come  at  my  call  in  May. 

* '  Tell  Anna  that  I  have  undertaken  to  super- 
intend children,  Ardente  Studente.  I  did  not 
like  children,  hut  for  the  discipline  of  my  soul, 
I  have  undertaken  to  teach  these  children. 
Anna  would  laugh.  I  always  liked  to  do  un- 
usual things,  but  this  time  have  descended  to  a 
platitude. ' ' 

The  information  as  to  this  witty  friend's  oc- 
cupations was  expressed  in  a  highly  character- 
istic fashion.  Her  dislike  of  children,  who  in 
fact  bored  her,  will  also  be  remembered  by 
those  who  knew  her. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my  sister:  ''Anna  knows 
that  I  am  with  her  most  of  the  time.  Try  the 
automatic  hand  writing;  get  a  large  piece  of 
paper  and  turn  your  head.  Anna's  ponderous 
mind  sometimes  gets  in  the  way — (laughs) — 
hand  goes  round  and  round.  Don't  mind  if  the 
messages  are  unsatisfactory,  the  contact  will 
help." 

(Has  she  a  good-by  message  for  me?) 

**I  tried  already  to  tell  her  when  I  spoke 
about  the  rock.    I  am  like  a  person  just  learn- 


102  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ing  to  swim  over  here,  and  so  much  helped  if  I 
can  feel  that  I  can  just  get  the  end  of  my  toe  on 
the  rock.  Tell  her  I  have  my  lovely  memories, 
that  go  back  farther  than  husband  or  child,  and 
with  them  I  comfort  myself. 

On  August  the  1st,  a  totally  unexpected  ap- 
pearance, that  of  the  Late  Dr.  Polk  of  New 
York,  announced  itself,  for  the  reason  that  my 
sister's  eldest  son  had  at  that  time  been  warned 
that  an  operation  for  appendicitis  might  be 
necessary.    She  had  apparently  consulted  him. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  ''An  older  person  than 
your  sister  who  obtrudes  himself  for  the  pur- 
pose of  adding  a  superscription  to  the  list  of 
names.  I  was  a  doctor.  Her  son — an  opera- 
tion, not  the  same  operation;  analogy  in  the 
cutting.    You  will  hear  of  it.    I  came  to  report 

because  it  was  in  my  line.    Frank  P (the 

name  of  his  son). 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my  sister:  ''Captain 

How  good  looking  he  isl" 

(Is  this  your  son?) 

"No,  a  contemporary.  Anna  did  not  take 
this  seriously.  Just  a  little  test;  they  like  to 
see  that  we  are  happy. ' ' 

(Do  you  know  what  your  second  son  is  do- 
ing?) 

* '  He  prevailed,  anxious  to  do  it  and  has  sue- 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  103 

ceeded;  got  permission  (shows  him  turning 
over  something).  I  know  that  he  has  said  that 
he  wished  that  I  could  see  him.  (Shows  some- 
thing heavy  across  his  arms;  he  pulls  some- 
thing, like  a  strap;  it  comes  across  his  chest;  a 
cup-working,  looking  up,  hands  active.  Dressed 
in  brown  like  khaki;  like  a  uniform.  Shows  a 
vision  of  an  American  flag  waving.)  Patriotic 
— going  to  France.  (Gesture  of  pushing  as  of 
departure) — ^my  boy — the  other — tries  to  please 
me.  I  am  gratified  at  his  wish  to  contribute 
to  his  country's  cause.  I  am  happy  at  his 
thought  of  me." 

I  was  not  informed  that  my  sister's  eldest  son 
had  contemplated  an  operation  until  some  eight 
months  after  this  meeting  with  Mrs.  Vernon. 
My  sister's  exclamation  about  the  good  looks 

of  Captain referred  to  an  afternoon's  visit 

paid  to  her  by  an  oflBcer  from  Camp  Upton 
on  the  occasion  of  her  last  visit  to  me  in  New 
York  in  December,  1917.  He  was  not  a  near 
acquaintance  but  distinctly  deserved  her  en- 
comium. 

Her  second  son  had  gone  to  work  in  a  muni- 
tion factory.  I  had  been  informed  of  this  fact, 
but  not  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  persuade 
his  father  to  permit  him  to  enter  the  factory 
nor  was  I  aware  of  any  of  the  details  or  char- 
acteristic motions  in  the  execution  of  his  work. 


104  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Her  eldest  son  was  on  the  eve  of  his  departure 
for  France  with  his  company.  The  operation 
was  only  contemplated  and  was  finally  found 
to  be  unnecessary. 

Two  weeks  later  on  the  15th  of  August,  I  saw 
Mrs.  Vernon  at  the  Copley  Plaza  in  Boston.  I 
began  the  conversation  by  speaking  aloud  to 
my  sister,  telling  her  of  my  appreciation  of  the 
lucidity  of  her  messages. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard :  **I  grasp  the  significance 
without  the  necessity  of  words  but  expressing 
it  focuses  the  ideas.  (Shows  an  image  of  a 
glass,  filled  with  clear  and  sparkling  water.) 
This  philosophy  is  like  pure  water.  (Pouring 
a  rosy  liquid  into  the  glass.)  Its  purity  and 
brilliancy  is  warmed  and  colored  by  the  friend- 
ship existing  between  you  (Mrs.  Vernon  and 
myself). 

(Could  you  get  assistance  from  Dr.  Hodgson 
and  George  Pelham  in  furnishing  tests  and 
other  material  for  publication?) 

**  Almost  anything  which  can  be  a  test  is  of 
scientific  value.  Make  little  anecdotes,  short 
as  possible,  with  as  many  witnesses  as  are  able 
to  give  names.  Too  much  verbosity  in  the 
records  supplied  by  the  Psychical  Kesearch  in- 
vestigators." 


"THE  BROKEN  ARCS"  105 

(Are  you  still  with  me?) 

''Oh!  Yes,  and  I  have  seen  your  depression. 
Take  an  inventory  of  the  tests ;  you  have  quite 
a  number,  and  more  will  be  given." 


CHAPTEB  V 
**In  Heaven  the  Pebfect  Eound.*' 

THERE  was  a  long  interim  between  the  last 
meeting  with  Mrs.  Vernon  and  that  of  Oc- 
tober the  2nd,  which  occurred  at  her  house  in 
New  York.  I  was  on  the  eve  of  a  visit  to  our 
old  home  and  my  sister  asked  certain  things 
of  me,  indicating  what  I  should  say  to  certain 
members  of  her  family. 

(Do  you  feel  the  separation  less;  are  you 
happier?) 

My  sister:  "Calmer  but  not  happy  yet.  Not 
gay.  But  it  is  quiet  and  peaceful.  I  am  under 
instruction." 

(All  gayety  is  over  for  me.) 

**I  do  not  know  what  Anna  would  have  done 
without  this.  I  am  learning  serious  things,  not 
gay;  but  I  know  that  it  is  right  that  I  should 
learn  them.  * ' 

(Will  you  help  us  and  send  us  messages  all 
this  coming  Winter  when  I  shall  see  Mrs.  Ver- 
non continuously?) 

"The  messages  will  be  as  brilliant  and  spark- 

106 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  107 

ling  as  a  circle  of  gems.  (Gesture  of  putting 
Mrs.  Vernon's  hand  in  Anna's  and  then  putting 
her  own  hand  over  the  clasped  hands.)  Indis- 
soluble. A  wonderful  combination,  because 
you  and  Mrs.  Vernon  have  that  quality,  sup- 
posedly masculine,  of  frankness.  Will  accept 
nothing  but  truth;  no  pretense." 

On  October  the  26th  after  my  return  from 
my  journey,  my  sister  commented  upon  my  oc- 
cupation while  there,  of  examining  and  sorting 
certain  family  papers. 

*  *  Anna  is  a  procurator  of  pedigrees.  Papers, 
letters." 

(Have  you  a  message  for  Edith ?y 

*'Why!  who  is  Edith?  I  feel  such  a  rush  of 
affection ;  she  is  holding  out  both  arms  and  she 
says :  'Tell  Edith  that  I  would  like  to  give  her 
a  big  hug.   Edith  really  loved  me.  * ' ' 

(Have  you  seen  Henrietta?) 

**I  see  much  of  Henrietta.  She  has  been 
much  interested  in  my  spiritual  development; 
has  been  a  real  rock  of  support.  Salt  of  the 
earth. ' ' 

(I  hope  that  I  am  not  retarding  your  develop- 
ment by  occupying  you  with  these  earthly  com- 
munications?) 

' '  Occupation  is  salutary  for  every  one.  Tell 
Anna  she  is  not  taking  my  time,  but  she  is  pro- 


108  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

viding  me  with  an  occupation.  Perseverance 
will  disclose  the  fabric  of  our  ethereal  exist- 
ence, overshadowed  as  it  is  by  the  orbit  of 
materiality.  (Shows  a  vision  of  a  figure  of  a 
man  walking  down  a  sunlit  road;  his  shadow 
behind  him.)  Sunlight  plays  over  his  figure, 
and  a  shadow  follows  it.  The  ethereal  world 
is  a  shadow  of  the  material.  The  two  lives  are 
as  inseparable  as  shadow  and  figure.'* 

(Is  the  material  world  in  shadow  and  the 
ethereal  world  in  the  light?) 

**No,  both  alike  are  illuminated  by  the  sun." 

(Are  your  ethereal  symbols  as  definite  to  you 
as  our  material  symbols  are  to  us?) 

'*We  construct  our  own  symbols.*'  (Shows 
bubbles  rising  in  the  air.) 

(Is  the  world  which  surrounds  you  an  emana- 
tion from  the  Divine  mind?) 

**The  power  of  construction  is  of  divine  ori- 
gin. We  can  construct  but  our  creations  do  not 
clutter  up.  They  vanish  when  we  are  finished 
with  them.  Our  bodies  being  unlike  material 
bodies  have  not  the  wants  of  material  existence. 
But  if  we  wish  to  produce  an  arm  chair  for 
instance,  and  look  at  it,  we  can  do  so.  Our 
bodies  are  of  light  ether  which  float  in  the 
heavier  ether  near  the  earth." 

(Are  there  buildings  for  assemblages?) 

**If  we  wish  to  symbolize  a  hall  of  learning, 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  109 

we  can  do  so.    People  over  here  have  to  be  in 
harmony.*' 

(Would  several  people  have  to  combine  to 
constmet  these  halls  of  learning!) 

**  People  over  here  must  be  in  harmony  with 
the  conditions ;  newcomers  could  not  construct. 
Tyros  toil  to  no  purpose,  hence  the  advantage 
of  instruction.  The  masters  who  have  served 
through  probation  and  initiation  up  to  fulfill- 
ment can  direct  the  construction  single 
handed. ' ' 

(Is  nature  over  there  or  what  corresponds  to 
nature  here,  the  emanation  from  the  mind  of 
God?) 

* '  The  map  is  provided  by  a  Divine  efflux ;  the 
scheme  is  provided,  but  the  partitions  are  made 
by  the  inhabitants  here.  The  Universe  remains 
the  same." 

(Do  you  mean  that  the  ethereal  world  is  last- 
ing; that  it  holds?) 

"This  world  does  hold,  the  universe  holds; 
but  the  appurtenances  vanish  like  the  foam  in 
the  wake  of  a  ship." 

(Do  you  see  the  S.P.R.  group  still?) 

(Shows  a  picture  of  two  letters  closely  inter- 
twined as  in  a  monogram,  enclosed  in  a  laurel 
wreath.  One  letter  is  brightly  illumined,  the 
other  is  darker.)  *  *  My  twin  brother  is  even  more 
spiritually  developed  than  mother.    His  teach- 


110  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ings  are  more  sympathetic  than  mother  ^s.    I 
need  no  other  teacher. ' ' 

(That  must  be  very  lovely,  that  companion- 
ship.) 

**It  is  more  lovely  than  human  conception." 

(Are  you  not  happy  in  this?) 

"Very  happy  and  fortunate.  A  good  deal  I 
give  you  is  from  him.  He  entwines  his  spir- 
itual tendrils  around  my  soul  and  has  promoted 
my  welfare  through  insisting  upon  my  enlight- 
enment. He  reveals  the  intricacies  of  disen- 
tanglement from  earthly  ties.  (Shows  a  sym- 
bol of  a  chestnut  burr,  falling  open  and  reveal- 
ing the  beautiful  clear  nut  beneath.)  He  says 
that  if  sound  at  the  core,  all  exterior  defilement 
will  fall  away. ' ' 

(Must  you  disentangle  yourself  from  all 
earthly  ties?) 

**  As  the  magnet  to  the  steel,  so  does  our  love 
ever  bind  us,  and  mutual  development  will  re- 
sult therefrom  but  never  separation." 

(I  feel  the  separation  just  as  bitterly  as  ever; 
so  bitterly  at  our  old  home.) 

* '  My  emotional  stress  is  just  as  great  as  her 
own.  I  must  collect  myself.  (Shows  herself 
with  hands  over  her  eyes  as  in  weeping.)  I  am 
supported  by  the  words  of  wisdom  of  the  de- 
veloped souls  about  me  while  you  have  only 
this  philosophy." 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  111 

(Are  you  near  us  in  your  own  spiritual  body 
or  do  you  communicate  from  a  distance?) 

**We  project  ourselves  from  a  distance.  It 
is  just  as  if  there  were  a  central  telephone  ofl&ce, 
with  an  operator  who  caUs  up  a  number,  and 
the  personalities  are  allowed  to  speak  along 
the  wires;  without  this  operator  we  would  be 
impotent.  You  also  have  to  have  a  psychic. 
After  the  communication  is  established  it  is  my 
magnetism  which  you  feel." 

(Are  you  near  sometimes?) 

* '  Sometimes  I  am  in  the  same  ether,  but  even 
if  it  were  only  from  the  next  house,  without 
the  medium  here  and  there,  we  cannot  com- 
municate. The  spiritual  proximity  may  be  of 
the  closest  character,  but  even  through  the  wall 
there  cannot  be  clear  communication  without 
the  telephone,  no  matter  how  close  it  is.  This 
is  the  exact  condition." 

(Who  is  the  operator  now?) 

"Groups  of  beings  who  might  almost  be 
called  overcharged  electrically,  overcharged  dy- 
namos, sensitive,  magnetic.  It  is  a  peculiar 
nervous  organism,  like  psychics  on  earth,  who 
are  not  necessarily  very  spiritually  developed. 
Over  here  the  most  successful  are  those  who 
have  this  magnetic  development  in  conjunction 
with  the  light  of  spirituality." 

Edith  and  Henrietta  were  both  very  intimate 


lU  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

with  my  sister.  Edith  is  Mrs.  Stillman  of 
Chicago,  who  received  the  letter  from  my  sister 
about  the  table  cover.  Henrietta,  also  of  Chi- 
cago, was  Mrs.  Strobel.  She  died  about  ten 
years  ago. 

The  intimiate  association  of  my  sister  with 
her  twin  brother  who  died  in  infancy  is  here 
most  beautifully  symbolized. 

Her  statements  about  the  construction  of  ob- 
jects and  landscapes  in  the  ethereal  world,  are 
up  to  this  point  all  illustrative  of  the  process  of 
projection  or  evocation  by  thought  alone. 
Later  messages  very  clearly  point  to  another 
process,  which  includes  a  manipulation  of  ether. 

The  method  of  communication  described  so 
clearly,  as  similar  to  that  used  in  a  central  tele- 
phone office,  with  specially  endowed  operators 
at  both  ends  of  the  wires,  is  very  interesting 
particularly  in  the  statement  that  the  spirit 
operators  have  peculiar  nervous  organisms. 
Does  then  the  *'peresprit"  or  spiritual  body 
possess  nerves'?  and  do  these  nerves,  vitalized 
by  electricity,  represent  a  thought-conducting 
apparatus  similar  to  that  of  the  incarnate 
psychic! 

On  Wednesday,  the  31st  October,  which  was 
the  nineteenth  sitting,  my  sister  for  the  first 
time  gavie  inf ormatiOH  regardi&g  thought  vibra- 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  113 

tions  which  operate  upon  matter.  The  nature 
of  this  matter  is  not  explained  at  this  time. 
This  reference  to  "constructional  vibrations" 
is  the  only  one  as  yet  recorded  in  transcen- 
dental communications. ' ' 

My  first  question  was : 

(Do  you  construct  houses?) 

My  sister :  ' '  Starts  sets  of  vibrations,  which 
much  be  rhythmical,  then  we  construct.  (Turns 
the  handle  of  a  machine).  These  are  construc- 
tional vibrations  and  they  differ  from  thought 
vibrations  as  in  telepathy  or  thought  trans- 
ference in  communication.  The  thought  trans- 
ference and  telepathy  vibrations  are  entirely 
emanations  from  the  brain.  When  we  wish  to 
build  a  house,  these  constructional  vibrations 
which  we  use  correspond  to  our  physical  man- 
ual efforts  on  earth.  (Shows  a  symbol  of  a 
machine  like  a  coffee  grinder  from  which  a  sub- 
stance like  ground  coffee  comes.)  Brain  di- 
rects, but  the  matter  must  first  be  originated. 
Matter  falls  into  shape  without  manipulation 
by  hand." 

Here  then  is  a  very  clear  statement  that  in 
the  construction  of  houses  some  form  of  matter 
is  employed.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
possession  of  a  brain  by  these  ethereal  opera* 
tors  is  also  distinctly  stated. 

(Do  you  live  in  a  house  yourself!) 


114  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

**  Figure  to  yourself  a  beautiful  landscape, 
intersected  by  a  sparkling  shaded  stream,  on 
the  banks  of  which  recline  two  figures,  my  twin 
and  I.  There  amidst  verdant  fragrance  I  re- 
ceive my  instruction  daily.  Vincent  unfolds  to 
me  the  glories  of  spiritual  upliftment  and  occu- 
pations, condemning  gently  but  firmly  the  viru- 
lence of  wasting  one's  time  in  degrading  pur- 
suits. He  wrestled  with  my  combativeness  at 
first,  and  overcame  my  arguments  with  regard 
to  the  nature  of  certain  earthly  amusements  to 
which  I  clung.  He  said  he  had  better  food  for 
me.  I  resented  being  deprived  of  these  things. 
To  this  his  plane  and  to  this  beautiful  place,  the 
fabric  of  his  imagination,  I  am  allowed  to  as- 
cend for  my  spiritual  instruction.  It  is  a  higher 
region,  so  we  speak  of  going  up  to  it.  The 
higher  one  goes  the  more  harmonious  are  the 
conditions.  When  we  are  less  developed  we 
have  to  force  our  way  through  uncongenial 
surroundings.** 

The  process  of  evocation  of  landscapes  by 
thought  alone,  as  here  quite  clearly  indicated, 
is  in  definite  contrast  with  the  process  of 
manipulation  of  matter  as  described  in  the  fore- 
going message. 

(Where  do  you  go  when  you  come  back  after 
this  daily  instruction?) 

"I  come  back  to  a  sort  of  hall,  a  far  more 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  115 

material  place,  a  sort  of  community  house. 
There  is  confusion  there  and  much  coming  and 
going.  We  convert  to  our  uses  the  discarded 
constructions  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us. 
The  only  way  to  work  up  to  harmonious  condi- 
tions is  through  spiritual  development.  We 
use  these  discarded  houses  as  people  in  a  city 
live  in  houses  built  by  others,  but  when  we  grow 
in  spirituality,  we  can  build  for  ourselves  beau- 
tiful domains.  I  can  go  up  to  Vincent  for  my 
spiritual  instruction,  but  I  cannot  stay  there. 
I  must  develop  out  of  the  conditions  in  which 
I  am  now." 

(Is  this  house  like  a  hotel?) 

* '  A  place  for  transients.  They  come  in  num- 
bers and  they  go  on.  (An  impression  of  hurry 
and  confusion  as  before.)  There  are  material 
abodes  provided  for  the  requirements  of  mate- 
rial souls  to  whose  brains  the  earth  images  are 
still  clinging." 

(Do  you  see  anyone  you  know  in  this  house 
of  transients?) 

*  *  If  we  do  see  friends  we  are  so  anxious  about 
where  we  are  going  next  that  we  hardly  speak. 
Here  the  more  highly  developed  spirits  come  to 
lend  a  hand  to  those  they  love.  They  transport 
them  to  other  realms  adapted  to  their  develop- 
ment. They  eject  trespassers  and  that,  I  may 
say  in  passing,  is  one  of  the  great  problems  here 


116  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES  . 

as  well  as  in  earth  life.  There  are  curiosity 
seekers,  and  scoffers  and  mischiefmakers,  who 
have  to  be  guarded  against.  The  guides  attend 
to  that." 

To  my  next  question  as  to  whether  she  had 
gone  to  a  place  like  that  when  she  first  went 
over,  my  sister  replied  in  a  narrative  of  her 
first  moments  after  her  death  when  she  awoke 
in  the  other  world.  This  narrative,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  is  quite  unique  in  its  beauty  and  clarity 
of  description. 

"Food  is  given  to  material  spirits;  a  sort  of 
flaky  stuff  like  snow  was  given  to  me.  (Shows 
a  vision  of  her  body  prostrate,  with  someone 
bending  over  her,  feeding  her  this  snowy  mix- 
ture.) A  blow,  as  if  I  had  been  knocked  down, 
prostrated.  This  revived  me  and  enabled  me  to 
collect  myself.  Prostrated  by  the  shock  of  go- 
ing over  suddenly. ' ' 

(Who  gave  you  this  food?) 

**A  man  with  a  gray  beard,  and  clad  in  a 
white  garment.  He  chose  to  assume  this  vener- 
able appearance  because  it  was  more  comfort- 
ing. The  first  thing  I  saw  was  this  venerable 
man.  Then  to  my  restricted  vision  there  ap- 
peared relays  of  benign  spirits  whom  I  first 
took  to  be  nurses  as  they  were  clad  in  white. 
They  bent  over  me  and  ministered  to  me  in 
words  of  ineffable  sweetness  and  wisdom,  ex- 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  117 

plaining  that  death  was  like  birth,  entailing  a 
separation  from  previous  conditions,  a  wrench. 
I  rebelled  against  the  necessity  of  the  separa- 
bility of  the  soul  from  the  body.  I  tried  to 
express  my  unwillingness  to  accept  this,  my 
horror  at  the  operation,  in  a  vain  pantomime. 
Then  in  instant  response  to  this  mute  appeal 
appeared  my  parents  and  my  brother.  They 
bent  over  me  and  at  first  I  thought  they  were 
whispering.  Then  I  perceived  strange  delicate 
sounds,  liquid,  yet  vibrant,  which  did  not  strike 
upon  my  auditory  nerves  but  pierced  to  the 
center  of  the  brain.  They  were  like  no  earthly 
sounds,  and  I  perceived  that  they  revealed  their 
command  over  the  telepathic  means  of  com- 
munication. '  * 

(Did  you  recognize  them  at  once?) 

*'Yes,  they  did  not  seem  changed.  They  had 
assumed  their  earthly  appearance  or  I  would 
not  have  recognized  them. '  * 

(Do  you  usually  wear  this  spiritual  body;  is 
it  a  garment  like  the  material  body?) 

**We  like  to  be  recognized  by  our  spiritual 
characteristics.  We  can  assume  our  earthly 
form  at  will.  Faces  remain  somewhat  the  same 
in  the  ethereal  body  in  which  we  ordinarily 
appear." 


118  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

On  November  the  7th,  the  group  of  Mrs. 
Vernon's  controls  manifested  themselves,  in 
answer  to  my  opening  remark  that  I  hoped  that 
my  sister  would  go  on  with  her  narrative. 

Controls:  ''This  is  an  individual  case  which 
illustrates  the  universal  process.  The  souls 
are  always  greeted  by  their  loved  ones.  Mary 
and  Thomas  (Mrs.  Vernon's  grandfather) 
make  known  their  presence. ' ' 

(Is  this  the  Society  for  Psychic  Research 
Group?) 

*'We  take  turns.  Myers,  James,  Hodgson — 
we  came  over  tremendously  interested  in  this 
thing  and  we  keep  at  it  still  as  it  is  the  only 
thing  which  lasts." 

A  tentative  description  of  a  psychic  telegraph 
was  here  interpolated  by  Edwin  Friend. 

Controls:  **If  you  wish  you  can  go  on  with 
your  narrative.  Edwin  Friend  has  passed  on 
to  his  pursuits.  Just  dropped  in  to  talk  about 
the  instrument.  It  is  good  for  the  psychic  to 
have  certain  lines  out  when  the  fishing  is  good. 
Does  not  get  stale.  According  to  the  rules  of 
courtesy  the  psychic  should  receive  the  mes- 
sages when  he  has  the  time  to  speak.  Your 
sister  has  a  ^and  in  it.  All  these  communica- 
tions are  handled  by  the  same  group  of  controls. 
Those  who  wish  to  communicate  say  when  they 
wish  to  communicate.   Must  take  into  considera- 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  119 

tion  the  conditions.  Your  sister  tells  us  what 
she  wants  to  say.  Good  minds  yours  and  Mrs. 
de  Koven's,  and  her  sister's  mind  also.  A  good 
combination  which  clarifies  the  forces.  This 
combination  is  sympathetic  to  us.  The  process 
Is  always  the  same.  Mrs.  Vernon  is  the  psychic 
and  we  are  her  controls,  the  only  variant  com- 
ing from  the  diversity  of  the  communicator  and 
the  sitters.  We  are  going  to  put  it  through 
with  you  and  Mrs.  de  Koven.  We  have  at  last 
got  the  proper  conditions.  It  is  the  same  group 
of  controls.  These  men  are  in  the  Imperator 
group.  Ancient  and  wise  spirits  who  can  do 
this  from  many  SBons  of  experience.  Imperator 
is  a  control.  In  your  sister's  experience  we 
brought  you  up  to  the  reunion  period.  Process 
of  separation  of  body  and  soul." 

(Was  it  in  mercy  that  my  sister  was  permitted 
to  communicate  with  me  so  soon?) 

My  sister:  "Messengers  attend  to  that." 
(Shows  a  vision  of  a  religious  procession  carry- 
ing something  which  looks  like  a  sacrament.) 
The  Ceremony  of  Allotment.  Relatives  met  me 
but  they  could  not  stay  with  me.  I  was  led 
where  I  could  develop  in  this  procession  sup- 
ported by  my  relatives.  This  is  where  the 
masses  for  the  dead  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  are  so  wonderful.  They  do  seem  to 
reach  up." 


120  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

(Mary  and  Minnie  [her  old  servants]  did 
have  a  mass  said  for  you.) 

**Yes,  I  knew  it.  It  helped  me.  It  reached 
me.  Thus  we  proceeded  to  the  realm  of  rest- 
less souls,  who  quiver  with  a  desire  to  return 
and  resume  their  accustomed  habits.  These 
souls  prevent  their  own  development  by  contin- 
uously clinging  to  lost  joys.  Myriads  here  are 
in  this  condition,  but  permanency  retains  its 
hold  upon  few.  Most  are  fortunate  enough  to 
develop  out  of  it.  Wisdom  and  mercy  prevail, 
through  the  efforts  of  divine  masters,  who  en- 
courage the  interest  and  desire  for  spiritual 
growth." 

(Do  you  want  to  come  back  still?) 

"No,  for  I  realize  that  I  cannot  come  back 
and  I  have  accepted  the  inevitable.  One  must 
go  on,  else  one  sinks  into  ineffable  despair. 
The  promulgation  of  spiritual  growth  is  our 
greatest  occupation  over  here,  interspersed 
with  mental  occupations  such  as  music. ' ' 

At  the  next  sitting  on  November  the  17th, 
before  my  sister  was  permitted  to  go  on  with 
her  narrative,  the  controls  reverted  to  their 
previous  discussion  of  the  means  and  methods 
of  communication,  adding  some  observations 
concerning  the  origin  of  the  peculiar  powers 
of  the  psychic.    Prefacing  their  discussion  by 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  121 

the  statement  that  human  magnetism  arises 
from  the  action  of  opposing  currents  of  elec- 
tricity, they  added  that  each  personality  pos- 
sesses a  projecting  or  psychic  force.  Although 
this  force  is  the  non-material  part  of  the  or- 
ganism, and  therefore  spiritual,  it  is  not  neces- 
sarily religious.  It  does,  however,  tend  to  vivi- 
fy the  mental  powers.  Some  discarnate  and  in- 
carnate personalities  possess  this  force  in  a 
peculiar  degree.  It  gives  them  control  of  the 
psychic  forces  which  surround  the  earth.  The 
universe  is  regulated  in  an  order  of  rhythm 
and  harmony,  to  which  these  circumambient 
forces  are  attuned.  Highly  developed  souls 
are  in  harmony  with  these  forces.  Does  not 
this  agree  with  the  statements  of  the  peculiarly 
organized  human  beings  who  assert  that  they 
are  '*in  harmony  with  the  higher  forces*'  and 
that  by  controlling  and  evoking  them,  they  are 
able  to  work  miracles  of  healing?  And  as  elec- 
tric currents  are  known  to  pervade  the  earth 
and  its  atmosphere,  is  not  electricity,  as  dis- 
tinctly suggested  in  the  opening  sentences  of 
the  following  argument,  the  universal  conduc- 
tor of  these  psychic  forces,  of  both  physical  and 
mental  energy? 

Mrs,  Vernon  heard:  "Electrodes  produce 
heat  through  the  friction  of  opposite  currents. 
Thus  human  magnetism  receives  its  vital  quali- 


122  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ties  through  the  interpolation  of  various  oppos- 
ing currents.  Each  personality  contains  all  the 
elements  of  a  projecting  force  which  vivifies 
the  mentality  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  ac- 
cording to  the  spiritual  development — a  refine- 
ment or  development  of  psychic  force  which  is 
the  non-material  element  of  a  personality,  not 
necessarily  religious.  It  does  not  follow  that 
psychics  are  good  or  that  spirits  are  high- 
ly developed,  but  they  have  control  over 
certain  of  these  psychic  forces.  These  forces 
or  elements  surround  the  earth,  and  upon 
these  the  psychic  has  control  as  in  tele- 
pathic communication.  These  forces  exist  in 
the  universe  unheeded  by  the  majority  until 
development  awakens  an  interest  in  them.  A 
material  soul  thrust  suddenly  from  its  earthly 
habitation  may  be  passed  by  the  harmonious 
and  rhythmical  personalities  unless  they  take 
on  the  self-appointed  task  of  caring  for  these 
wanderers.  The  universe  is  regulated  in  an 
order  of  rhythm  and  harmony.  The  developed 
souls  conform  to  this  harmony  and  they  go  on 
their  way  unheeding  their  newcomers  unless 
some  voluntarily  elect  to  take  care  of  them. 
This  service  is  optional  over  here  as  it  is  on  the 
earth.  Fortunately  for  your  sister,  her  brother 
has  elected  to  convey  glad  tidings  and  to  act  as 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  123 

a  messenger  for  hope  to  her,  bewildered  by  new 
conditions." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my  sister:  **It  is  veri- 
tably a  withdrawal  of  the  curtain  like  a  rent  in 
the  clouds.  (Shows  a  vision  like  the  last  act 
of  Faust  with  angels  ascending.)  Indescrib- 
able, unspeakable  light.  The  light  was  so  won- 
derful !  but  the  prostrate  body  attracts  one  at 
first,  until  custom  reveals  that  the  pulsing  soul 
departs  to  regions  of  rarefied  ether  where 
neither  heat  nor  cold  nor  hunger  or  thirst  pene- 
trate. (Shows  a  vision  of  a  globe  like  the  earth 
with  a  wire  netting  around  it.)  Souls  are 
borne  along  on  these  currents  to  different  de- 
grees, going  round  and  round." 

(Are  you  still  in  that  house  of  transients?) 

"Yes,  first  I  was  a  novitiate,  but  now  I  am 
an  interne.  I  am  now  helping  the  unhappy, 
and  now  I  am  helping  others.  It  is  almost  like 
a  hospital  of  sick  and  homesick  souls.  I  have 
finished  my  restlessness  and  go  up  to  see  Vin- 
cent every  day  for  my  instruction." 

(Is  this  hospital  the  first  station  near  the 
earth?) 

"Yes,  the  first  passenger  station  or  hospi- 
tal." 

(Do  your  parents  come  to  the  hospital  to  see 
you?) 

' '  Yes,  they  have  reverted  to  their  young  days 


124  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

when  they  were  first  drawn  together.  They 
come  hand  in  hand  together  to  see  me,  with 
happy  expressions  on  their  faces,  and  they  are 
interested  in  what  I  am  doing.  Mamma  is  no 
longer  disgruntled  with  me.  I  am  a  good  little 
girl,  and  doing  all  I  can.  (Vision  of  our  mother 
with  her  hand  on  my  sister's  shoulder.)  I  want 
to  proceed.  I  want  to  move  on  away  from  here. 
I  do  not  think  that  I  could  ever  do  missionary 
work.  That  would  not  suit  me.  Mamma  does 
missionary  work  and  Vincent  does  missionary 
work,  also,  but  Papa  does  something  mental. 

(Do  families  not  live  together  over  there?) 

*'It  is  more  like  fraternities.  Like  draws 
like.'* 

(Who  are  you  with?  Are  you  still  associated 
with  the  S.P.R.  group?) 

**Yes.  I  am  still  associated  with  them.  My 
chief  interest  lies  with  them.  Mamma's  inter- 
ests do  not.  Without  them  I  should  have  lan- 
guished for  a  word  from  the  earth.  Psychics 
provide  meat  and  drink  for  languishing  souls 
over  here  as  well  as  for  those  on  earth.  This 
is  what  she  (Mrs.  Vernon)  did  for  me,  in  bring- 
ing me  in  touch  with  Anna.  The  homesickness, 
the  longing  for  those  we  love,  that  we  leave  on 
earth,  is  what  hurts  us.  This  is  the  psychic's 
mission,  for  we  are  just  as  hard  pushed  over 
here  as  those  on  earth.     (To  Mrs.  Vernon.) 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  125 

Never  belittle  your  task.  If  you  could  see  the 
group  over  here,  and  the  satellites  attracted  by 
the  glow,  agonized  for  just  one  word.  Many 
have  waited  for  years  to  hear  just  one  word 
from  those  whom  they  have  left.  One  word 
is  enough  for  those  who  have  longed  for  years. 
Then  they  can  go  on  with  their  development." 

(Will  you  please  look  up  T.  and  G.,  for  their 
mother  wishes  to  speak  with  them  to-morrow.) 

* '  T has  the  exaltation  of  achievement.    A 

cloud  arises  from  these  dead  soldiers.  It  is  a 
beautiful  atmosphere  and  peculiar  to  those  who 
have  achieved  something.  Those  who  have 
done  nothing  do  not  have  this  aura.  This  ex- 
altation of  achievement  helps  them  very  much. ' ' 

(I  have  no  fear  of  death.) 

"When  all  things  have  righted  themselves, 
Anna  will  come  to  me  and  in  the  glow  of  spir- 
itual and  mental  intercourse  will  our  days  be 
passed.  (Showing  a  vision  as  of  looking 
down  a  long  lane  through  an  opera  glass. )  But 
Anna  has  work  to  do.  She  must  complete  this 
work  and  through  this  work  she  will  escape 
being  overwhelmed  in  the  labyrinthine  prob- 
lems which  overwhelm  so  many  souls  when  they 
come  over  here.  Strive  to  entertain  the  idea 
that  spiritual  advancement  is  without  exagger- 
ation laying  up  for  yourself  treasure  in 
heaven. ' ' 


126  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  Mother:  "I  am  very 
much  pleased  with  our  darling's  development, 
(Vision  of  my  mother  advancing  and  my  sister 
running  away.)  I  also  see  her  mistakes. 
I  should  not  have  expected  a  child  to  develop 
before  her  time.  Some  people  are  children  up 
to  the  age  of  eighty- three.  I  still  have  Anna's 
spiritual  development  at  heart." 

(Have  I  progressed  in  my  own  way?) 

**Yes,  you  have  progressed  a  great  deal. 
Your  spirituality  is  more  material  than  mine. 
It  deals  with  more  projects  than  mine  does. 
Your  sister  misses  her  sewing,  but  they  have 
tried  to  supply  this  want  with  other  things.  One 
can  sew  over  here,  but  it  seems  futile." 

(What  have  you  been  doing?) 

**I  seek  out  those  with  distorted  spiritual 
viewpoints.  I  try  to  state  plainly  that  common 
sense  and  wisdom  lead  to  spiritual  development 
in  the  end.  Anna  will  laugh  to  hear  that  I 
discourse  on  these  subjects  sometimes." 

(Do  you  and  your  husband  live  together  in  a 
house?) 

"Just  think!  We  disport  ourselves  together. 
We  reside  when  we  choose  under  the  same  por- 
tico, but  our  different  occupations  separate  us 
at  periods  reclaiming  and  protecting  us  from 
differences  of  opinion.  Compulsory  conditions 
are  what  create  unhappiness.    There  is  a  tie 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  127 

which  unites  us  which  does  not  always  unite 
those  who  have  been  married.  Anna  may  not 
understand  that  there  is  a  tie  between  us  which 
does  not  always  exist." 

The  characteristic  trials  of  my  sister  and  her 
mother  are  very  plainly  evident  in  these  mes- 
sages. The  reunion  of  our  parents  and  their 
return  to  the  earliest  days  of  their  companion- 
ship, in  which  they  indulge  with  mutual  delight 
in  the  midst  of  their  varied  occupations,  gives 
an  idea  of  heaven  which  to  our  human  compre- 
hension can  hardly  be  enhanced. 

At  the  next  sitting  of  November  the  22nd,  I 
asked  to  be  informed  as  to  the  occupations  of 
our  father.  Mrs.  Vernon's  controls  replied  to 
this  question: 

''Your  father  supervises  the  outgoing  souls 
on  the  mission  of  projecting  schemes  for  the 
immersion  of  the  material  into  the  mental.'* 

(Does  this  mean  that  our  father  is  working 
for  the  improvement  of  the  earth  souls,  or  for 
others  who  have  passed  on?) 

**  Earth  souls  when  sufficiently  sensitive  re- 
ceive transmissions  from  across  the  Gulf,  im- 
proving them  mentally  and  diverting  (assist- 
ing) them  in  various  attainments." 

(Has  our  father's  experience  in  controlling 


1«8  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

men  in  his  political  career  helped  him  in  this 
occupation?) 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  F:  ''Anna  must  not  ex- 
aggregate  (modestly).  I  only  did  my  bit,  but 
what  experience  I  gleaned  on  the  earth  has 
been  of  great  value  in  my  welfare  work  here. ' ' 

Asking  now  of  my  sister  if  her  statement 
that  "the  universe  held"  coincided  with  her 
other  statement  that  her  twin  brother's  land- 
scape was  the  passing  construction  of  his  imagi- 
nation, she  attempted  again  to  explain  what 
then  seemed  to  me  contradictory  information. 
She  enlarged  upon  the  imaginative  method  and 
made  a  statement  about  the  mind  as  being  in 
the  last  analysis,  the  origin  of  all  forms.  This 
recalls  Dr.  Geley's  hypothesis  of  the  creative 
process  of  materialized  organisms  and  his  opin- 
ion that  all  seemingly  material  appearances  are 
only  representations  of  such  appearances, 
evoked  and  constructed  by  mind. 

My  sister:  *'It  is  like  going  to  a  moving- 
picture  show  and  seeing  them  reel  off  a  film. 
(Shows  a  picture  of  a  cinematograph  in  opera- 
tion.) Very  difficult  for  you  to  understand  how 
the  real  thing  according  to  your  ideas  is  after 
all  the  only  figment  of  the  imagination.  As  for 
instance,  you  think  that  the  active  mind  is  the 
real  thing  and  the  subconscious  mind  the  imagi- 
native, while    really  the   subconscious  is  the 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  129 

real  thing  and  the  active  is  the  nnreal.  Over 
here  ideas  and  images  do  take  form.  It  is  a 
mental  manipulation  of  matter  and  not  a  man- 
ual, employed  by  those  whose  development  at- 
tains thereto.  These  laws  are  almost  beyond 
the  comprehension  of  terrestrial  beings  and 
recently  arrived  souls  over  here,  as  they  depend 
for  their  manipulation  upon  thought  control. 
Vincent's  landscape  depends  for  its  existence 
upon  the  mind's  eye  of  the  giver.  It  is  there 
when  presented  to  our  view  by  a  powerful 
thought  current." 

(We  want  to  think  that  there  is  a  tangible 
world  and  one  that  does  not  pass  away.) 

*  *  The  universe  does  hold.  It  is  like  a  clouded 
slate.  One  must  know  how  to  rub  away  the 
cloud  or  one  cannot  see  the  picture  underneath. 
There  are  others  over  here  who  have  a  sort  of 
befuddled  vision.  There  is  a  realm,  a  very 
vivid,  sustaining  and  abiding  realm,  but  one 
must  be  developed  to  be  able  to  look  into  this 
realm.  There  is  such  a  veil  between  and  so 
thick  a  cloud,  one  must  have  an  abiding  faith 
that  the  realm  is  there.  The  realms  themselves 
are  manufactured  through  the  desire  for  good 
and  beautiful  things  of  the  evolved  souls.  Jesus 
says : '  In  my  father 's  house  are  many  mansions 
and  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you. '  Evolved 
and  highly  spiritual  souls  must  go  before  to 


ISO  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

prepare  these  places.  The  spiritual  desire  for 
beauty  and  harmony  is  the  mortar  from  which 
these  realms  are  made." 

The  profound  significance  of  the  statement 
that  the  active  mind  is  the  unreal  and  the  sub- 
conscious the  real,  cannot  be  overlooked.  It 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  subconscious 
is  the  eternal  part  of  us,  already  existing  in 
the  infinite  unseen,  while  what  we  think  are  our- 
selves, are  dreaming  ghosts  of  our  real  person- 
alities, spinning  out  a  brief  earthly  existence 
among  sights  which  are  themselves  figments  of 
the  imagination — symbols  adapted  to  our  earth- 
ly perception. 

In  my  next  question  I  asked  my  sister  if  she 
was  conscious  of  the  presence  of  the  Christ 
spirit. 

"The  Christ  spirit  pervades  the  univerise 
from  the  darkest  depths  of  the  earth  to  celes- 
tial spheres.*' 

(Do  any  souls  see  Christ?) 

"None  that  I  have  ever  met  have  seen  him.** 

(Do  souls  go  to  other  planets?) 

"Encircling  each  zone  like  the  crust  of  a 
pie  ( I)  are  layers  of  impenetrable  though  lumin- 
ous liquid  matter  conveying  more  or  less  read- 
ily the  electrical  currents  which  connect  the 
planetary  system.    By  means  of  these  currents 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  131 

this  system  is  held  together.  Is  this  plain  to 
Mrs.  Vernon?'*    Mrs.  Vernon  said  "Yes." 

(Are  there  spiritual  zones  around  each 
planet?) 

"The  requirements,  atmospheric  and  other- 
wise, of  each  zone  create  indigenous  beings. 
The  passage  into  eternity  or  the  hereafter 
varies  according  to  the  planet  but  upon  recep- 
tion into  spiritual  realms  coordination  and  con- 
version into  ethereality  occurs. '  * 

(Do  souls  go  from  one  planet  to  another?) 

"Simultaneously  Mercury,  Venus,  the  Earth 
and  Mars  disgorge  into  eternity.  The  earth 
contains  rarer  specimens  of  mental  exuberance 
than  planets  in  the  descending  scale  from  the 
sun.  Hence  the  origin  of  the  sun  and  light  wor- 
shippers. The  means  of  transit  afforded  us 
through  loss  of  corporeal  clogs  enables  us  to 
detect  the  advantage  and  superiority  of  the 
earth  dwellers.  Ethereal  beings  may  enjoy  a 
plunge  through  the  orbits  of  various  planets 
but  earthly  development  makes  unnecessary  a 
sojourn  upon  another  planet.** 

(Do  these  less  developed  souls  rise  as  they 
go  to  the  ethereal  existence?) 

"Some  very  quickly,  but  some  take  a  very 
long  time." 

(Is  the  Christ  spirit  active  in  the  other  plan- 
ets?) 


132  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

"Yes,  it  pervades  all  the  universe  for,  after 
all,  the  Christ  spirit  is  spirituality.  It  appears 
and  reappears  in  individuals.  You  exhibit  the 
Christ  spirit  if  you  do  a  kind  deed — like  a  spark 
fanned  into  flame  or  extinguished  according  to 
the  individual's  wish.'* 

At  the  close  of  this  sitting  I  asked  my  sister 
if  she  had  seen  any  one  else  whom  she  liked  to 
be  with  besides  her  parents  and  her  twin 
brother.  As  if  in  answer  to  this  question  Mrs. 
Vernon  was  moved  to  look  at  some  painted 
cupids  on  a  screen  in  my  boudoir  in  which  we 
were  sitting.  My  sister  showed  children  danc- 
ing and  said  that  she  has  many  diversions. 

At  this  point  other  personalities  manifested 
themselves  as  they  did  at  the  sitting  following, 
so  that  it  was  not  until  a  fortnight  had  passed 
that  I  was  able  to  ask  her  what  she  had  meant 
by  showing  the  vision  of  the  children  dancing 
and  pointing  to  the  cupids  on  the  screen. 

My  sister:  "Festival  of  the  Renaissance.'*  (A 
second  vision  of  little  children  dancing,  bound 
with  garlands  which  connect  them  together.) 

(It  is  now  nearly  a  year  since  your  last  visit 
to  me.  I  hope  you  know  that  I  treasure  the 
recollection  of  every  moment  of  it.) 

"Tell  Anna  that  I  feel  what  she  says  tele- 
pathicaUy.  Pattering  of  little  feet,  festival  of 
the  Renaissance.    A  festival  celebrating  indi- 


"THE  PERFECT  ^OUND"  133 

vidual  spirituality.  Each  soul  is  fettered  with 
material  bonds.  When  the  soul  finally  makes 
up  its  mind  to  rid  itself  of  these  bonds  it  has  a 
festival  of  spiritual  rebirth,  the  festival  of  the 
Kenaissance.  Before  the  soul  comes  to  earth  it 
IS  spiritual;  on  earih  it  collects  material  clogs 
which  cling  when  the  soul  first  passes  over, 
but  when  finally  purged  (freed)  from  these 
bonds  and  imbued  with  the  desire  for  spiritual 
advancement  it  has  this  festival  of  the  Een- 
aissance.  "When  a  soul  has  burst  these  bonds 
and  turned  its  back  on  all  earthly  ties  it  is  cel- 
ebrated with  all  sorts  of  youthful  symbols.  One 
must  verily  become  as  a  little  child." 
(Did  you  see  the  cupids  in  the  screen?) 
*  ^In  order  to  impart  it  to  you  we  have  to  make 
the  medium  see  it." 

(Did  you  see  it  yourself?) 
"We  sense  things." 

(Are  you  near  us  when  you  point  out  things 
like  that?) 

'*To  quote  the  Scriptures  *  Nearer  than  hands 
or  feet. '  Put  this  in  brackets  for  Anna 's  amuse- 
ment. Mamma  gives  me  these  quotations  from 
the  Scriptures." 

(Is  Mamma  with  you  now?) 
'*Yes,  Mamma  is  here  this  morning." 
Mother :  "I  have  learned  that  religion  is  not 
of  necessity  serious.    I  come  to  you  now  with  a 


134  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

playfulness  difficult  for  you  to  understand.  I 
have  learned  to  commingle  religion  with  toler- 
ation and  now  I  am  going  to  make  an  epigram. 
(Hearing  the  word  epigram.)  Not  epigram  but 
aphorism.  I  can  make  epigrams  also.  Be- 
sprinkle the  fertile  soil  of  your  soul  with  the 
ingredients  of  unselfishness  and  devotion  to 
humanity. ' ' 

(Do  you  know  and  approve  of  the  work  I  am 
now  doing  towards  furthering  patriotism?) 

**Yes,  but  the  only  real  uplift  is  charity 
towards  mankind.  The  only  thing  that  has 
value  over  here  is  lending  a  hand.  Entirely 
apart  from  intellectuality.  If  charity  and  men- 
tality go  not  hand  in  hand  it  profits  the  soul 
nothing. ' ' 

My  sister:  **Does  Anna  understand  the  im- 
portance of  my  festival.  Mamma  has  worked 
very  hard  over  me.'* 

(Yes.    I  am  so  glad  for  her  happiness.) 

*'A  very  important  occasion  for  it  indicates 
spiritual  advancement.  From  now  on  I  can 
really  be  more  vnih.  Mamma. ' ' 

(I  realize  it  must  be  happier  for  her.) 

**Yes,  greatly  happier;  we  can  be  more  to- 
gether." 

Mrs.  Vernon  said  that  she  felt  a  lighter  at- 
mosphere, an  expression  of  happiness  quite  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  she  had  perceived  in  the 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  135 

earlier  sittings  when  my  sister  had  not  reached 
this  stage  of  her  development. 

(You  said  that  you  had  diversions,  such  as 
music.  "What  kind  of  instruments  do  you  have 
and  what  kind  of  music?) 

"All  the  instruments  that  you  have  and  more 
besides,  not  made  by  hands.  Contrived  through 
methods  of  mental  vibrations." 

(Do  not  these  vibrations  construct  a  certain 
kind  of  matter?) 

''How  can  I  describe  it?  It  is  more  as  when 
one  dreams  something;  as  in  a  dream  every- 
thing seems  real.  You  see  people  playing  on 
instruments  or  following  their  various  lines.  It 
is  just  as  if  you  departed  from  your  waking  life 
and  came  to  live  in  a  dream. '  * 

(And  yet  the  spiritual  body  is  made  of  ether, 
is  it  not?) 

**Yes,  and  so  are  all  of  our  images,  manipu- 
lated ether  not  manually,  manipulated  men- 
tally. We  discard  these  images  like  the  shell 
of  a  locust,  like  the  first  model  of  a  sculptor  in 
clay  before  marble.  We  call  them  realities  here 
because  they  are  the  first  impressions.  Nothing 
can  take  form  without  first  being  thought  out. 
Therefore  the  thought  forms  seem  to  us  the 
realities.  The  originating  thought  is  the  idea, 
not  the  result." 

(Do  you  assemble  in  halls  and  hear  music?) 


136  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

**  Indeed  we  do,  without  the  discomfort  of 
draughts  and  bad  air." 
'     (You  did  not  like  music  much  on  earth.) 

*  *  There  are  as  many  trends  of  mind  over  here 
as  there.  Music  lovers  have  their  music;  art 
lovers  their  art;  but  all  must  qualify  spirit- 
ually." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  Mother:  **Anna  will  re- 
joice that  we  are  together.  "We  once  were  far 
apart.  It  will  please  Anna  to  know  that  we  are 
quite  close  at  last."  (Sends  a  vision  of  patting 
Anna  on  the  shoulder.) 

(Could  I  have  a  message  of  love  from  them 
both?) 

Mother;  **"We  aim  our  love  laden  darts 
straight  at  Anna's  heart."  (Showing  a  vision 
of  both  of  them  with  bows  and  arrows  in  their 
hands  aiming  at  Anna.) 

(I  am  much  happier.) 

''Balm  comes  from  above."  (Pointing  up- 
ward with  her  bow)  "We  are  happy;  it  has 
gladdened  Anna's  heart." 

In  the  interval  between  the  last  sitting  of 
November  the  27th  and  the  ensuing  one  of  De- 
cember the  10th  my  husband's  brother  had  died 
in  England.  Two  sittings  had  already  been 
entirely  occupied  with  messages  from  deceased 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  137 

members  of  my  husband's  family.  At  the  end 
of  the  second  sitting,  Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my 
sister's  name. 

(Is  my  darling  here?) 

**Yes.    Has  Anna  got  her  question?" 

(Is  the  ethereal  landscape  formed  by  the  Di- 
vine mind?) 

''Dominion  over  matter  is  a  Divine  prerog- 
ative and  the  conformation  of  the  landscape 
occurs  as  the  result  of  ethereal  manipulation  by 
superior  intelligences  endowed  with  the  ability 
to  conjure  their  own  geographic  emplacement 
by  what  the  Kaiser  called  the  divine  right  of 
Kings.  The  attainment  of  this  privilege  is  ac- 
complished through  seons  of  individual  aspira- 
tion for  spiritual  growth,  eschewing  the  idea  of 
reward  of  merit,  simply  aiming  straight  at  the 
goal,  through  service  to  one's  fellow-beings." 

(Is  it  in  these  landscapes  that  newcomers 
live?) 

"Privileged  newcomers  like  myself  attain 
glimpses  of  glorious  realms  through  the  efforts 
of  solicitous  relatives  sufBciently  evolved.  Tell 
Anna  as  in  the  case  of  Louise 's  openings,  to  see 
is  to  desire.  Over  here  they  show  us  these  beau- 
tiful landscapes  so  that  we  may  desire  them.'* 

(Are  you  still  in  that  house  of  transients?) 

"Oh!    No,  not  since  my  awakening. 


1S8  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Eippling   streamlets   play, 
Here  are  sunbeams  bright  and  gay. 
Those  you  love  are  here  together, 
Never  menaced  by  the  weather. 

Just  to  vary  it  a  little.'* 

(Who  do  you  mean  by  those  I  love?) 

"Mother  and  F,  my  brother  and  I,  all  here.** 

(Are  you  living  with  our  parents  under  the 
same  portico?) 

Mrs.  Vernon  saw  a  vision  of  a  chariot  race, 
as  in  **Ben  Hur,"  or  the  pictures  of  Aurora  in 
her  car.  Three  beautiful  figures  are  pulling  this 
car,  a  single  beautiful  figure  in  the  car,  clad  in 
a  Greek  robe.  ''Papa  and  Mamma  and  my 
brother  are  pulling  the  chariot.  They  convoy 
me,  teaching  and  protecting  me.** 

(Are  you  very  happy  now?) 

Mrs.  Vernon  saw  a  vision  of  a  very  radiant 
being.  ' '  They  conduct — I  have  to  be  carried.  I 
do  not  direct ;  do  not  hold  the  flower  reins ;  they 
pull  me  along." 

(Are  there  seven  spheres  in  heaven?) 

''With  their  ramifications  there  are  seventy 
times  seven.'* 

(In  which  sphere  do  you  live?) 

"Ehyme  and  reason;  this  is  why  I  spoke  in 
verse.  There  is  one  sphere  where  everything  is 
rhythmical  and  in  rhyme.  Seven  planes  but  in 
each  of  these  planes  there  are  variations  of 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  139 

development.      Tell    Anna.      Reggie's    folks'* 
(gesture  of  pushing  the  brother  gently  away). 

(Have  you  helped  him  to  communicate!) 

*  *  No,  I  have  my  turn. ' ' 

On  December  the  17th  I  continued  my  ques- 
tions to  my  sister  asking  her  what  kind  of 
clothes  she  wore. 

' '  My  garments  envelop  me  with  a  richness  be- 
coming and  lasting,  yet  ever  changing  colors 
and  perfumes  pervade  their  enveloping  folds." 

(Are  they  white  flowing  garments?) 

'*Yes,  yet  not  severe;  swinging  folds  like 
chiffon,  not  as  severe  as  the  classic  Greek  lines. 

The  soft  breath  of  the  pine  trees  and  salt  from  the  sea. 
Commingle  their  essence  when  wafted  to  me." 

Assuming,  we  may  imagine,  her  own  lovely 
guise  and  surrounded  by  the  loveliest  images 
of  human  imagination,  evoked  by  the  angelic 
spirits  of  the  heavenly  hierarchy,  my  sister  cele- 
brates her  rebirth  in  a  new  world,  amid  flower- 
bound  children,  dancing  in  a  round.  And  again 
like  Aurora,  she  voyages  through  the  clouds,  in 
a  flower-decked  chariot,  convoyed  by  the  radiant 
spirits  of  those  who  so  loved  her.  In  her  little 
rhymes,  she  expresses  her  harmony  with  a  har- 
monious world,  and  in  her  delight  in  music,  in 
the  perfumes  of  pines  and  the  sea,  she  shows 


140  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

her  enjoyment  of  all  the  pleasures  of  sense  and 
of  sight.  Still  seeking  to  learn  more  of  the 
mysteries  of  this  lovely  existence,  I  asked  her 
if  the  world  evoked  by  the  masters  was  eternal, 
if  it  endured. 

My  sister :  * '  So  difficult  to  explain  about  the 
power  of  thought!  The  landscapes  appear  at 
the  behest  of  the  individual.  They  are  perma- 
nent. If  there  is  no  table,  and  we  want  a  pretty 
table  we  think  of  it  and  it  will  appear.  If  we 
want  pink  roses,  they  also  appear.  If  you  want 
to  go  to  the  mountains  and  are  sufficiently  de- 
veloped, the  mountains  come  to  us.  What  sym- 
bol can  I  use?  The  mountains  came  to  Ma- 
homet.   He  conjured  them  up. ' ' 

Mrs.  Vernon  observed  that  it  would  be  awk- 
ward if  I  wanted  to  go  to  the  mountains  and  she 
wished  to  go  to  the  seashore. 

** Don't  be  ridiculous!  If  Anna  and  you 
wanted  to  go  to  the  seashore  you  would  go  to- 
gether. If  you  want  to  hold  communion  you 
would  have  to  decide  whether  it  would  be  the 
mountains  or  the  seashore.  People  must  be  in 
harmony.  The  guides  instruct  the  newcomers. 
What  your  aspirations  and  desires  are,  is  de- 
termined by  your  trend  of  thought." 

(Can  you  see  and  hear?) 

"We  sense  things." 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  141 

(Yet  the  ethereal  body  is  a  form  of  matter,  is 
it  not?) 

*'Yes,  but  it  is  so  different;  it  does  not  have 
to  eat  or  sleep." 

(But  you  had  food  at  first,  did  you  not!)' 

**Yes,  the  automaton  needs  lubrication  for 
its  performances  during  a  certain  time.  When 
the  body  and  soul  are  still  somewhat  together 
at  first,  but  when  they  become  thoroughly  de- 
tached no  such  replenishment  is  necessary. ' ' 

(Is  the  aura  of  the  same  material  as  the 
ethereal  body?) 

"The  aura  represents  the  fragmentary  evo- 
lutions of  ethereal  matter  in  process  of  form- 
ing a  celestial  encasement." 

(Has  the  ethereal  body  weight?) 

''Infinitesimal,  but  tangible  as  the  off-giv- 
ings  of  the  pine  trees,  if  collectible  would  have 
weight. '  * 

Mrs.  Vernon  got  an  odor  of  pine  trees. 

(Are  you  with  me  and  do  you  see  me?) 

''Often,  and  thought  will  always  bring  me." 

(Do  you  know  how  much  I  am  missing  you 
all  these  days?) 

' '  Yes.  I  have  tried  often  to  reach  you,  but  the 
mechanism  is  not  right.  The  mechanism  is  not 
quite  right  for  these  mental  communications. 
Periwinkle  shells  contain  their  quota  of  imper- 
ceptible matter,  but  communication  with  them 


142  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

is  impossible  except  at  moments  when  they 
choose  to  protrude  this  sensitive  substance. 
The  process  should  be  an  intuitive  or  involun- 
tary application  of  natural  laws  rather  than  a 
determined  or  vigorous  effort.  Be  on  the  alert ; 
on  guard  for  these  intuitive  onslaughts  but 
never  attempt  to  force  one.  Shifty,  evanescent 
and  spasmodic.  Fleet  as  Artemis  must  be  the 
brain  to  detect  them." 

At  this  moment  Mrs.  Vernon  pointed  to  a 
stream  of  sunlight  coming  through  the  window 
and  the  brighter  more  distinct  ray  which  lay 
upon  the  floor  and  as  she  spoke  heard:  ''This 
stream  of  sunlight  and  the  ray  reflected  on  the 
floor  are  like  body  and  soul,  as  near  an  explana- 
tion as  I  could  give  you." 

Evidently  matter  in  the  other  world  is  Pro- 
tean, taking  on  visibility,  weight,  color  and 
form  at  the  behest  of  aU  powerful  mind.  So  in 
the  materialization  experiments  bone  could  be 
instantly  supplied  to  the  arm  of  the  being  whom 
Sir  William  Crookes  photographed  when  its 
absence  was  observed  by  an  experimenter. 

In  Dr.  Crawford's  experiments  the  exuded 
substance  was  invisible,  except  to  the  photo- 
graphic plate.  The  statement  that  immediately 
after  death,  body  and  soul  are  still  not  entirely 
separated  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  ethe- 
real body,  already  existing  in  the  material  body, 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  143 

has  absorbed  somewbat  of  tbe  beavier  but  still 
dissolvable  substances  of  which  that  material 
body  is  composed.  From  these  heavier  ele- 
ments the  ethereal  body  in  its  celestial  form 
must  be  detached,  and  until  this  detachment  is 
complete,  some  form  of  food  is  supplied.  The 
occasional  protrusion  of  periwinkles  from  their 
shells  would  seem  to  be  mentioned  as  an  anal- 
ogy in  nature  to  the  protrusion  of  the  ethereal 
body  of  the  medium,  and  an  enhanced  receptiv- 
ity resulting  therefrom.  It  would  also  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  ethereal  body,  possessed  by  all 
human  beings,  must  also  conform  to  this  condi- 
tion if  transcendental  messages  are  to  be  per- 
ceived. 

On  December  the  31st,  my  sister,  in  a  mood 
of  deepest  humility  and  self-reproach,  declared 
her  disapprobation  of  her  own  character,  her 
perception  of  the  effect  of  her  own  beauty  upon 
her  earthly  development.  The  contrast  between 
this  avowal  and  her  earlier  declaration  that  *'it 
would  not  have  been  human"  not  to  use  the 
power  that  beauty  gave  her,  is  so  indicative  of 
her  development  that  I  dare  not  suppress  it. 
That  her  self -judgment  was  far  too  harsh  would 
not  only  be  recognized  by  all  who  knew  her,  but 
its  severity  is  commented  upon  by  her  mother. 

* '  Carve  out  of  marble  a  beautiful  statue,  im- 


144.  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

bue  it  with  life  and  animation  but  neglect  to 
inspire  it  with  a  soul — ^with  all  humility  this 
was,  but  is  not  I.*' 

(I  am  happy  about  your  spiritual  develop- 
ment, but  don't  forget  how  much  I  miss  you.) 

*' Ephemeral,  fragile,  evanescent,  corporeal 
beauty,  trending  continually  earthward,  tram- 
meling the  soul  with  clogging  chains  of  earthly 
desire.  Blessed  are  those  who  escape  these 
snares.*' 

(What  are  your  occupations?) 

*'My  occupation  is  developing  the  soul  and  it 
proceeds  by  logical  stages ;  first  I  learn  the  de- 
tonations (vibrations)  or  vocabulary  of  thought 
transference.  (Shows  a  vision  of  ripples 
around  a  stone  thrown  into  water,  vibrations  of 
air  coming  from  stones  clapped  together.) 
There  is  so  much  to  be  learned.  (Hands  to  head.) 
I  have  had  to  accommodate  myself  to  the  idea 
of  spiritual  standards  instead  of  material 
standards.  The  life  is  entirely  mental  and  spir- 
itual which  is  very  diflScult  for  you  to  follow. 
I  am  going  to  school,  paying  more  attention  to 
it  than  many  others  are  doing. '  * 

(Are  you  still  instructed  by  your  twin 
brother?) 

"He  supervises  my  education  and  sets  my 
tasks,  which  I  prefer  to  perform  myself.'* 

(What  kind  of  tasks?) 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  145 

* '  Self -development ;  I  hear  music  if  I  want  to 
but  I  did  not  have  that  trend,  and  over  here  we 
follow  our  trends." 

(On  earth  yotl  were  fond  of  making  people 
happy,  fond  of  sewing  and  fond  of  sports.) 

Mrs.  Vernon  sees  a  vision  of  panels  of  em- 
broidery, with  little  painted  figures  such  as  are 
put  on  lampshades.  ''That  is  my  amusement, 
but  I  was  referring  to  the  serious  side  of  things. 
My  occupations — not  my  amusements.  My 
occupation  consists  chiefly  in  learning  to  de- 
velop myself. ' ' 

(What  tasks  does  your  brother  give  you?) 

**He  told  me  to  hand  on  my  first  lesson  to 
some  one  else.  It  is  never  well  to  hand  on  one's 
instructions  to  those  who  do  not  want  it.  It 
was  diflficult  for  me  to  learn  this  wordless  com- 
munication. He  gave  me  my  first  lesson  in 
this  wireless  communication.  He  told  me  to 
teach  it  to  some  one  else — ^I  did  so  and  I  re- 
turned somewhat  elated  over  my  success.** 

(Whom  did  you  teach?) 

'*A  friend  of  a  humbler  station  than  myself. 
(Shows  a  woman  bending  over  a  washtub.) 
She  is  the  one  I  helped.  In  my  earth  life  1 
was  willing  to  help  those  people,  but  not  at  close 
hand.  I  returned  elated  and  my  brother  said : 
(Shows  a  book  with  Lesson  I  on  a  page.)  'You 
have  learned  Lesson  I;  now  you  must  learn 


146  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Lesson  IL  *  * '  (Turns  over  a  page  and  points  to 
Lesson  II — **  Garnering  the  Golden  Grain  of 
Patience.") 

(Are  you  making  those  pretty  little  things  for 
your  house!) 

"It  is  all  much  humbler  than  Anna  can  im- 
agine. I  had  to  go  back  to  the  laundress  and 
teach  her  a  second  time.  Vincent  said  I  had  to 
continue  it  until  I  liked  it.  When  I  found  I 
could  not  stand  it  any  longer,  I  was  permitted 
to  regale  myself  with  this  artistic  needlework. 
It  is  artistic  and  constructive  and  therefore  has 
its  value.  In  my  house  not  built  with  hands 
but  which  nevertheless  is  on  a  firm  foundation. " 

(Did  you  make  that  house?) 

"I  conjure  that  house  when  I  want  it,  and 
by  and  by  I  shall  have  a  finer  mansion,  not 
spurious  and  subject  to  decay  as  earthly  dwell- 
ings are,  but  I  shall  have  constructed  it,  I  hope, 
with  infinite  patience  and  a  gentle  persistency, 
the  combination  of  which  qualities  conquers  all 
things. '  * 

(Do  you  live  alone  in  your  house?) 

* '  Solitude  is  sometimes  desirable  but  I  prefer 
the  indication  of  gentle  presences  which  dispel 
the  shadows." 

(Who  are  they?) 

"Sometimes  my  mother,  sometimes  my 
brother,  sometimes  members  of  the  band  of  ex- 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  14.7 

quisite  creatures  who  exnlt  in  the  emancipation 
of  the  soul." 

(Are  you  far  away  usually!) 

"I  inhabit  the  ethereal  realm  revolving 
around  the  earth  and  am  borne  by  my  desires 
near  or  further  as  the  case  may  be.  When  I 
communicate  I  am  in  the  room. ' ' 

(Do  you  see  where  I  am  sitting?) 

**Tell  Anna,  I  am  right  behind  her  with  my 
hand  on  her  shoulder,  but  yet  to  her  I  appear 
very  far  away.  The  psychic  feels  my  presence. 
To  any  one  who  is  not  psychic  I  might  as  well 
be  a  million  miles  away. ' ' 

(I  love  her  all  the  time.) 

**The  separation  is  very  hard.  (Nods  her 
head  gravely.)  I  feel  that  I  did  not  always 
appreciate  what  Anna  tried  to  do  for  me.  I 
could  feel  very  badly  about  it  sometimes  if  I 
would  let  myself.  Now  it  stands  out  like  a  guid- 
ing star.** 

On  Jauary  the  14th,  pursuing  my  questions,  I 
asked  my  sister  about  the  government  in  the 
other  world. 

*'One  of  the  first  laws  is  that  of  harmony. 
There  is  no  progress  without  harmony  and  even 
argumentative  discussions  flow  harmoniously 
over  here.  The  functional  system  whereby  we 
live  is  a  sort  of  circumlocution  or  general  cir- 


148  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

culation  of  ideas,  generated  by  a  Divine  Dy- 
namo, which  propels  through  the  universe  the 
principles  of  truth,  life  and  spirituality.  A 
harmony  with  these  forces,  being  one  of  the 
first  lessons  which  we  learn. ' ' 

(Are  there  centers  of  influences  like  Univer- 
sities or  Government  institutions?) 

''Temples  of  learning  are  presided  over  by 
professors  or  masters  who  have  conquered  the 
problems  of  existence."  (Vision  of  a  temple 
such  as  the  classic  temple  of  Art  at  Bar  Harbor, 
with  spirits  coming  and  going  in  classic  gar- 
ments.) 

(Have  these  temples  a  permanent  existence?) 

"If  you  have  a  simple  house  and  want  a  bet- 
ter one  or  a  small  automobile  and  can  buy  a 
larger  one,  you  can  discard  the  old  ones.  So 
it  is  over  here.  For  the  individual  there  is  no 
permanency,  it  is  all  progress.  But  the  tem- 
ples remain  for  those  who  want  them;  to  this 
extent  they  are  permanent.  The  individuals 
go  on  developing.  Certainly  the  temples  re- 
main for  those  who  come  after.  I  am  taking 
the  case  of  an  Individual  and  in  this  there  is 
no  permanency." 

(You  keep  that  house  and  the  fancy  work 
for  a  while?) 

''We  create  things  as  we  want  them  and  we 
frequently  look  back  on  the  things  we  have  once 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  149 

desired  as  children  look  back  upon  their  dolls.** 

(Have  you  any  advice  about  my  life,  as  you 
watch  me?) 

"I  feel  that  I  can  get  quite  near  you;  you 
do  not  obtrude  your  opinions;  your  attitude 
has  been  so  humble  that  you  have  got  much  out 
of  this  communication.  The  receptive  attitude 
has  particularly  pleased  Mother.  Mother  was 
quite  assertive  herself  about  her  spiritual  at- 
titude when  she  was  on  earth.  In  order  to 
learn  one  must  assume  a  humbler  attitude  than 
she  had." 

(I  am  very  grateful  for  their  commendation, 
but  I  want  to  know  what  more  I  should  do.  I 
have  so  much  sadness  to  counteract.) 

Mother:  ''Go  on  with  your  writing;  push  it 
on  but  do  not  overtire  yourself.  We  see  that 
you  are  writing.  Go  on  with  your  preparations 
for  these  weekly  meetings."  (They  nod  their 
heads  and  show  two  books.) 

(My  thoughts  are  always  with  you;  my  last 
thought  at  night,  my  first  in  the  morning.) 

My  sister:  "Tell  Anna  that  her  warm 
hearted  affection  has  helped  me,  her  devotion 
has  sustaiued  me."  (Shows  a  vision  of  a 
book.)  ''The  book  of  my  life — romance — not 
instructive — towards  the  last  I  upheld  my  self- 
esteem  by  a  certain  degree  of  kindness  and  pa- 
tience.    (Holds  out  the  book  to  her  mother.) 


160  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

"Even  Mamma  was  pleased  with  my  work  to- 
wards the  end." 

(You  are  so  severe  with  yourself;  your  gay- 
ety  and  sympathy  were  of  unspeakable  help  to 
so  many!) 

**That  was  not  voluntary;  it  was  an  emana- 
tion of  personality  and  having  that  I  should 
have  done  more  with  it.  Having  this  spontane- 
ous gift,  I  do  not  take  any  credit  to  myself  for 
it." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  "Lucy — taut  (something 
wound  tightly  around  something,  like  some- 
thing on  a  reel). — (Gesture  of  despair.) 

(Are  you  happy  yet?) 

"I  still  want  the  fleshpots,  but  I  am  calmer. 
Tell  Anna  I  am  calmer  and  Mamma  and  my 
brother  have  been  of  infinite  help.  There  is  a 
great  central  force  and  if  one  is  in  harmony 
with  these  sublime  ejections  from  this  central 
dynamo  all  is  well.  But  when  one  does  not  re- 
volve in  harmony,  but  buffets  the  currents  dis- 
cord arises.  The  meaning  of  'Thy  will  be 
done'  is,  that  one  must  be  in  harmony  with 
these  sublime  forces.  It  is  exactly  like  learn- 
ing the  rules  of  a  game,  as  if  you  insisted  on 
playing  tennis  as  if  it  were  croquet,  using  your 
racquet  as  if  it  were  a  mallet.  It  does  not 
minimize  one's  individuality  to  learn  the  rules 
of  any  game,  or  of  this  life  any  more  than  it 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  151 

would  to  learn  how  to  play  tennis.  Harmony 
with  law  and  progress  in  accordance  with  law. 
Good  prevails  and  evil  vanishes,  burned  up  by 
its  own  poisonous  emanations. ' ' 

(Speaking  to  our  mother,  I  then  asked  if  she 
were  happy  when  she  first  went  over.) 

Mother:  **I  had  to  forget  some  prejudices, 
my  religious  doctrines  were  cut  and  dried,  hard 
and  fast.  I  had  to  learn  a  broader  philosophy. 
I  have  learned  that  out  of  evil  good  comes.  I 
would  not  have  admitted  it  on  earth.  Some 
people  have  to  learn  in  that  way.** 

(She  had  a  few  temptations.) 

**I  led  my  domestic  life  in  comfort.  My  de- 
sires were  gratified ;  and  there  was  a  situation 
of  financial  solidity,  but  I  worried  over  my  chil- 
dren. I  had  to  unlearn  a  good  deal.  I  have 
more  humor  now.  I  can  look  back  and  laugh  at 
my  spiritual  debauches.  They  were  really 
funny.  Exhorting  and  rhetorically  pinioning 
people  to  hear  all  that  I  thought  was  the  word 
of  God.  I  had  to  learn  a  broader  doctrine. 
Until  the  wonder  and  the  profundity  of  it  sank 
in,  I  had  a  hard  time.  Charity  to  all  men  is  the 
rule  of  cormnon  sense  after  all.  Terrible  as 
it  seems  wrong  doing  is  of  use,  as  thus  some 
learn.  Never  mind  me.  Our  darling  is  doing 
beautifully.     She  would  not  say  it  herself." 

(Are  you  happy?) 


16«  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

"Eadiantly  so.  So  will  she  be  although  she 
would  not  say  so  now.  She  has  to  effervesce  at 
times ;  so  she  did  on  earth ;  but  she  is  pure  gold. 
(Vision  of  a  glass  of  champagne.)  Like  the 
color  of  champagne,  her  heart  is  pure  gold,  inno- 
cent, this  effervescence." 

The  date  of  this,  the  thirteenth  sitting  was 
January  the  14th  and  the  message  about 
''Lucy"  was  quite  unintelligible  to  both  Mrs. 
Vernon  and  me.  Its  significance  was  only  too 
clear  on  the  first  of  February  when  my  faithful 
maid  Lucie  died  after  an  operation  for  appendi- 
citis. The  message  with  its  "gesture  of  de- 
spair" was  prophetic,  and  was  also  distinctly 
descriptive  of  the  condition  of  the  appendix 
which  was  in  fact  ''taut,"  having  grown  around 
other  organs,  exactly  as  it  was  described  in  the 
message. 

On  the  morning  of  the  Tuesday  after  her 
death,  which  was  the  day  of  her  funeral,  I  saw 
Mrs.  Vernon,  who  heard  Lucie  and  my  sister. 

My  sister:  "Dear  little  Lucie.  (Vision  of 
fastening  something  around  Lucie's  neck  like 
a  clasp.)  To  be  buried  with  her.  A  novitiate 
myself,  I  am  glad  to  help  Lucie.  Am  taking 
charge  of  Lucie,  who  preserves  her  attitude  of 
respect.  I  am  doing  my  best  to  help  put  through 
the  messages." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  "Lucie.    Revenir." 


«*THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  153 

Then  followed  a  very  intimate  discussion 
about  my  household,  with  a  request  that  I 
should  be  careful  to  whom  I  entrusted  the  key. 
The  message  about  the  clasp  is  very  evidential ; 
a  cross  bearing  the  image  of  Christ  had,  un- 
known to  me,  been  placed  upon  her  breast,  to  be 
buried  with  her. 

On  the  morning  of  January  the  29th  my  sister 
advised  me  in  regard  to  my  participation  in  a 
project  for  civic  betterment  which  I  had  been 
asked  to  support.  The  meeting  which  I  was 
to  attend  was  fixed  for  the  afternoon  of  this 
day.  My  conclusions  and  observations  tallied 
exactly  with  my  sister's  prognostications. 

"Anna  does  not  know  whether  to  enroll  in 
this  or  not.  (Shows  a  woman  sitting  over  a 
desk. )  Tell  Anna  not  to  enroll  in  this. ' '  (Pen- 
cil in  hand  striking  out  a  name  here  and  there.) 
' '  Not  worth  while — output  of  energy  not  worth 
while.  Output  outweighs  the  outcome,  hardly 
worth  while.*' 

(Do  you  know  that  I  have  seen  your  friend 
M.S.  and  that  I  agree  with  you  about  him?) 

*  *  Fifty.  I  hated  to  be  fifty ;  this  friend  knows 
how  I  hated  it.  The  replies  he  always  made 
were  consolatory.  He  said  I  had  not  grown  old, 
so  why  should  I  grow  old  ?  Yes,  I  know  that  you 
have  seen  him.    This  is  a  little  test." 


164?  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

The  conversation  here  referred  to  took  place 
between  my  sister  and  this  admiring  and  loyal 
friend  of  her  early  youth  not  once  but  many 
times,  according  to  his  testimony.  It  had  never 
been  repeated  to  me. 

•  •••••••• 

On  February  the  16th  Mr.  Edwin  Friend, 
whose  communications  will  be  transcribed  later, 
appeared  and  gave  several  very  important 
tests.  I  then  addressed  my  sister,  saying  that 
I  hoped  that  she  was  receiving  the  thoughts  of 
love  which  I  was  constantly  sending  to  her. 

* '  Tendrils  of  a  flower,  my  garden ;  not  all  sun- 
light, some  shadow,  more  sunlight  than  shade, 
the  garden  of  my  memory.  The  shade  repre- 
sents regrets;  the  sunlight  represents  the  suc- 
cesses; among  those  successes  I  regard  the 
holding  of  Anna's  affection  as  preeminent.  It 
was  involuntary  on  Anna's  part,  given  without 
measure;  I  perhaps  wandered  afield.*' 

(Do  not  ever  be  sorry  again.) 

**I  can  never  think  of  any  other  simile. 
Anna's  love  and  affection  are  like  a  bulwark  to 
me  now.  If  I  were  back  with  the  enlightenment 
I  have  now  I  never  would  have  wandered  afield. 
True  love  and  affection  do  surely  outweigh  any 
exterior  diversities. ' ' 

(What  are  you  doing  now?) 

"These  tests  are  important;  they  are  very 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  166 

important ;  therefore,  I  have  stood  back.  I  am 
preparing  a  sort  of  reception  hall  for  other  re- 
cruits like  myself,  and  remember  it  is  all  figura- 
tive, all  mental,  all  spiritual;  all  milestones  in 
the  soul 's  development.  It  seems  as  if  we  must 
always  lend  a  hand  to  some  one  beneath  us; 
that  is  what  I  do. ' ' 

At  the  next  sitting,  Mr.  Friend  again  com- 
municated and  in  answer  as  to  whether  my  sis- 
ter would  be  permitted  to  resume  her  narrative 
of  her  life  after  death  he  replied. 

* 'Pertinent  to  your  sister,  let  me  explain  that 
her  development  has  been  augmented  by  her 
terrestrial  communication,  as  it  supplied  her 
with  the  zest  and  interest  which  is  frequently 
lacking  in  a  newcomer.  She  is  learning  to  pull 
wires  herself,  and  is  particularly  proficient  in 
the  science  of  symbolic  manifestations  such  as 
retinal  hallucinations." 

My  sister:  *'I  would  like  to  have  you  show 
Anna  mirror  writing.'* 

Mrs.  Vernon  then  got  a  mirror  and  wrote  in 
reverse  script  a  message.  She  wrote  with  great 
rapidity  and  without  any  knowledge  of  what 
she  was  writing.  When  the  message  was  com- 
pleted she  gave  me  the  mirror  and  I  read  a 
most  amusing  and  startlingly  characteristic 
little  note,  unfortunately  too  intimate  to  be  pub- 
lished, regarding  matters  of  which  Mrs.  Vernon 


166  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

was  completely  ignorant.  It  was  signed:  "I 
send  you  all  my  love" — a  very  frequent  method 
of  ending  her  letters. 

(Are  you  making  pretty  things  for  your 
house?) 

"Mamma  forf ended  and  saved  me  much  time 
by  planning  for  me  a  spiritual  existence  coin- 
cident with  my  tastes.    For  Anna  she  should 

arrange  differently,  for  S differently  again. 

Believe  me  that  it  is  a  help  to  have  those  who 
love  us  go  before.  Mental  trends  direct  our 
ethereal  existences.  When  materiality  holds 
sway  to  the  utter  exclusion  of  all  spiritual  as- 
pirations, which  is  rare,  there  is  a  hopeless 
downward  trend  even  here,  which  requires  aeons 
of  time  to  overcome.  Such  cases  appear  here 
seldom  and  are  immediately  withdrawn  from 
our  view,  as  the  power  of  example  is  insidiously 
effective." 

Mother:  "Our  darling,  is  learning  symbol- 
ism. The  philosophy  gave  her  an  occupation. 
I  decided  to  direct  her  along  new  lines ;  making 
pretty  things,  doing  useful  things  too." 

(What  are  they?) 

My  sister :  "  I  am  trying  to  teach  in  my  turn 
spiritual  tasks  to  others." 

(Have  you  learned  enough  to  build  a  house?) 

**It  is  a  good  deal  as  when  you  planned  your 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  167 

house;  you  thought  it  out.  If  we  are  expert 
enough  our  thoughts  materialize." 

(What  kind  of  a  house  have  you  made  for 
yourself?) 

*'A  very  simple  one  as  yet.  I  am  again  like 
a  child  under  a  father's  roof.  This  thought 
realm  is  very  difl&cult  to  translate  into  material 
ideas." 

Between  the  sitting  of  February  the  13th  and 
that  of  the  18th,  the  announcement  of  Mr. 
Friend  that  my  sister  had  become  expert  in 
* '  retinal  hallucinations ' '  was  illustrated.  In  my 
bed  at  night,  with  all  lights  extinguished  for 
half  an  hour,  I  was  waiting  for  sleep,  when  a 
medallion,  small  as  a  gold  coin,  bearing  the  ex- 
quisitely drawn  image  of  her  face  appeared  on 
the  retina  of  my  eyes.  In  a  flash  it  was  there, 
in  an  instant  it  was  gone.  It  appeared  to  be 
definitely  localized,  exactly  as  when  one  has 
gazed  on  a  bright  light,  and  an  image  of  that 
light  has  remained  on  the  retina  after  the  light 
has  been  extinguished  and  the  eyelids  are 
closed.  On  the  following  night  I  saw  my  own 
face,  with  equal  distinctness  and  equally  local- 
ized. Since  that  time  I  have  seen  musical  in- 
struments, flowers  in  a  garden,  childishly  drawn 
profiles  and  again  many  times  my  sister's  face, 
although  far  less  distinctly,  and  once  her  name 
in  illuminated  Roman  script. 


168  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

When  I  saw  Mrs.  Vernon  on  the  18th  of 
February  she  told  me  that  she  also  had  seen 
these  medallions  on  the  retina  of  her  eyes  and 
for  the  first  time  in  her  experience. 

When  questioned  regarding  these  medallions 
during  one  of  the  sittings  when  Mr.  Friend  com 
municated,  he  said,  *' Retinal  sensibility  is  the 
most  alert,  as  one  might  call  the  optic  nerve  one 
of  the  peripheries,  therefore  more  easily 
reached.  So  it  seemed  worth  while  to  us  to 
attempt  this  form  of  addressing  ourselves  to 
Mrs.  de  Koven  as  other  signals  failed  to  reach 
her  and  in  order  to  corroborate  her  statements 
we  showed  them  to  you.  Your  sister  is  learning 
under  the  direction  of  the  scientific  minds  who 
assume  authority  in  these  proceedings.  Some 
in  this  group  you  would  call  of  the  ancients. 
Skepticism  in  regard  to  this  Imperator  group 
is  quite  unfounded,  as  without  them  and  their 
interest,  these  methods  would  never  have  been 
perfected.  Moving-picture  screen,  with  a  lan- 
tern, so  we  throw  pictures  on  your  retinas." 

At  the  next  sitting,  after  a  lengthy  communi- 
cation from  Mr.  Friend,  Violet  again  appeared, 
showing  herself  in  a  very  radiant  guise,  seem- 
ing very  happy,  and  dressed  in  a  beautiful  gown 
of  the  Louis  XV  period,  with  petticoat  and 
paniers.    This  description  followed  Mrs.  Ver- 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  159 

noil's  vision,  wMcli  was  very  minute  in  detail. 
(Are  you  happy,  darling?) 

My  sister:    ''I  am  happy  over  C (one  of 

her  children).     If  C can  be  made  to  see  it 

over  there,  she  will  be  spared  a  good  deal  of 
delay  over  here.  I  wish  that  Anna  could  see 
how  lovely  I  look.  (Mrs.  Vernon  remarked  upon 
the  blue  and  pink  of  her  dress.)  I  am  showing 
her  my  dress  just  as  I  used  to  show  you  my 
lovely  things.  I  want  you  to  know  that  I  am 
much  happier.  I  am  interested  in  the  pursuits 
over  here,  in  the  things  they  do.  I  also  like  the 
easy  locomotion." 

(Won't  you  go  on  with  your  narrative?) 
"I  just  came  to  say  that  I  am  happy,  just  as 
I  used  to  be  when  I  had  my  pretty  things  about 
me." 

(Have  you  anything  more  to  say?) 
''I  have  things  to  say  ad  infinitum,  but  it  is 
better  to  be  brief.  I  have  reached  the  stage 
when  the  spiritual  effluvia  envelop  and  support 
me  along  their  courses.  Even  Mamma  is  satis- 
fied and  says  that  I  have  not  done  so  badly. 
Papa  protests,  against  too  much  duress  as  I 
am  trying  to  do  my  best.  Anna  will  remember 
how  he  would  occasionally  plead  for  us  as  chil- 
dren. 'Don't  discipline  the  child  too  much; 
she  is  doing  the  best  she  can.'  I  am.  I  have 
tried  very  hard  and  I  have  learned  in  a  childish 


160  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

way  to  manipulate  the  symbols.  My  first  handi- 
work is  this  pretty  dress.  Highly  fortunate  in 
having  highly  developed  masters.  This  is  the 
power  of  a  good  background,  tradition  never 
belittles  these  things.  Background  of  good 
sturdy  character,  people  of  high  spiritual 
ideals,  this  counts  for  more  over  here  than 
Anna  and  I  thought.  This  is  what  counts  here. 
It  is  more  important  than  the  other  kind  (of 
ancestry).  The  trouble  with  human  kind  is 
that  they  value  the  things  that  do  not  count. 
In  conclusion  I  will  say  that  Anna's  present 
purposes  are  particularly  congenial  to  us.'' 

At  the  next  sitting  I  asked  that  my  sister 
would  continue  her  narrative  and  tell  us  what 
she  is  doing. 

*'I  am  picking  up  my  loose  ends  and  weaving 
them  into  a  fairly  presentable  design.  In  other 
words  I  am  trying  to  correlate  a  diversity  of 
interests  and  planning  them  along  spiritual 
lines.  Due  respect  is  paid  over  here  to  mental 
trends.  Therefore  my  weaving  may  take  the 
form  of  manufacturing  pretty  things  for  the 
benefit  and  pleasure  of  others  as  well  as  for 
myself.  If  one's  tastes  are  musical  it  is  per- 
mitiied  to  extract  sweet  strains  from  symbolical 
iastruia6Bts  for  the  emtertaiament  of  those  in- 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  161 

terested.  If  one  writes  tliat  attainment  may 
be  perfected  over  here." 

(Are  there  libraries?) 

* '  There  is  the  library  of  the  miiverse,  the  cos- 
mos to  draw  from.  It  all  depends  upon  one's 
inclination,  with  the  big  element  of  self  elimi- 
nated. ' ' 

(What  have  you  been  doing  the  last  twenty- 
four  hours,  can  you  tell  me?) 

''I have  mastered  the  intricacies  of  a  weaving 
machine,  from  which  I  have  extricated  a  very 
involved  design.  I  worked  it  out  with  patience. 
The  patience  was  necessary  to  extricate  the 
design.  In  this  way  spiritual  development  is 
interwoven.  Concentration  in  your  writing 
will  stand  you  in  good  stead.  Bearing  of  dis- 
appointments will  also  help.  You  asked  me 
what  I  had  been  doing ;  this  is  what  I  have  been 
doing.  A  combination  over  here,  by  allowing 
us  to  continue  our  mental  trends.  If  these 
trends  are  entirely  material  then  Heaven  help 
them  over  here.  Mental,  spiritual  and  moral 
effluxes  directed  by  Divine  instruction." 

(Is  the  sense  of  God's  personality  clearer 
than  here?) 

''Much  clearer,  as  we  are  nearer  the  source. 
Except  in  the  case  of  those  who  are  striving  to 
return  to  the  earth." 

(We  have  difficulty  in  realizing  it.) 


162  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

* '  A  sort  of  Divine  effulgence,  penetrating  the 
very  fibers  of  those  who  are  aware  of  its  exist- 
ence and  leaving  nntouched  those  who  deny  its 
existence.  'Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  his  righteousness  and  all  these  things  shall 
be  added  to  you.  *    It  is  like  this. '  * 

(Personality  is  so  important  here  in  our 
earthly  training;  there  must  be  a  source.) 

*' Where  we  stand  we  feel  the  Divine  efful- 
gence and  that  is  all  there  is  to  it." 

(You  do  not  seem  to  wish  to  be  with  people 
as  much  as  you  did  on  earth.  You  seem  prin- 
cipally to  be  with  your  own  family.) 

*'I  played  around  with  people  a  good  deal.  I 
am  not  with  my  family  all  the  time.  I  am  with 
masters  and  teachers  who  are  willing  to  serve ; 
they  teach  me. " 

(Have  you  seen  soldiers?) 

** Indeed,  I  have;  they  inhabit  a  realm  pre- 
pared for  them.  The  reason  why  the  earth  is 
inhabited  by  material  people  is  because  it  is 
fiUed  with  people  who  have  wanted  to  come  back 
until  they  have  developed  to  a  certain  point, 
then  they  do  not  wish  to  come  back." 

(Do  you  want  to  come  back?) 

"I  did  very  much  at  first;  now  I  am  not  so 
sure.  Mamma's  early  training  was  really  right. 
Her  manner  of  delivering  it  was  not  as  accept- 
able as  it  might  have  been,  but  she  was  right. 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  163 

Behold  a  caravan  of  exiles  in  a  desert,  wMte- 
garbed,  sandal-footed,  illuminated  faces  turned 
towards  the  east,  with  no  more  thought  of  their 
raiment  than  King  Solomon's  lilies.  Trusting 
in  Providence  to  provide  manna,  offering  up 
prayers  of  thankfulness  when  an  oasis  appears 
in  sight,  with  water  and  nourishment.  These 
are  true  prophets,  but  extremists.  Now  the 
tableau  changes  and  we  present  a  woman 
clothed  in  the  latest  fashion,  treading  the  prim- 
rose path  of  life,  beloved,  admired,  envied  per- 
haps, for  her  power,  beauty  and  possessions, 
but  with  a  soul  as  free  from  earthly  entangle- 
ments as  the  crusaders  of  the  first  picture.'* 

(Is  this  you,  dear?) 

' '  No,  this  is  not  I,  in  all  humility ;  my  soul  was 
not  free  from  earthly  entanglements.  It  is  pure 
fancy.  We  simply  meant  to  illustrate  that  one 
can  have  a  soul  free  from  earthly  entangle- 
ments in  the  midst  of  earthly  surroundings  just 
as  well  as  if  one  went  wandering  in  the  desert. 
No  need  to  be  extreme.    Mamma  was." 

During  the  progress  of  my  sittings  with  Mrs. 
Vernon  I  occasionally  tried  the  ouija  board. 
Sometimes  authentic  messages  seemed  to  be 
received,  often  subconscious  vibrations  were  ap- 
parent, and  sometimes  only  the  magnetic  force 
from  the  operators  moved  the  board  with  no 
intelligent  intention  whatsoever.    On  the  22nd 


164  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

of  February  my  daughter  and  I  received  what 
seemed  to  be  a  message  from  my  sister.  I 
record  it,  not  because  the  subject  of  the  message 
was  very  evidential,  but  because  the  rapidity  of 
the  motion  of  the  board  was  very  marked  and 
definite  and  because  my  sister  referred  to  her 
presence  in  a  later  sitting  with  Mrs.  Vernon. 
First  the  board  made  circles,  very  rapidly. 
This  sign,  according  to  Margaret  Cameron  in 
her  book  the  ** Seven  Purposes,"  indicates 
union  and  love.  *'Is  this  a  message  of  love?'* 
I  asked.  The  board  moved  instantly  to  **yes.'* 
* *Is  this  you,  dear?' '  I  asked.  Again  it  traveled 
rapidly  to  "yes."  Then  referring  to  her  bust 
in  bronze  which  stands  on  a  marble  column  in 
the  corner  of  the  library,  I  asked  if  she  could 
see  what  was  in  the  corner.  The  board  then 
spelt  out  *'bust."  ''Dear  Ethel,"  ''dear  An- 
na," was  then  spelt  out,  and  "Farewell." 

On  February  25th,  after  a  preliminary  com- 
munication from  Edwin  Friend,  Mrs.  Vernon 
heard  my  sister's  name. 

"I  have  brought  my  narrative  up  to  date.  I 
am  progressive ;  they  say  quickly.  I  will  soon 
be  able  to  impress  or  imprint  words  directly. 
(Shows  a  column  and  her  own  hand  pointing 
to  it.)  I  am  glad  Anna  got  my  message  of 
love." 

(Shall  I  go  on  with  the  ouijaf) 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  165 

"Yes.  She  will  know  that  it  is  I,  but  don't 
be  disappointed  if  the  messages  are  inaccurate. 
Yes,  I  tried.  Feel  that  I  am  there  and  be  pa- 
tient with  my  efforts. ' ' 

(Does  it  make  you  happier  to  feel  that  you 
can  make  your  presence  felt  directly?) 

"Oh!  the  difference  would  be  as  great  as  if 
one  was  obliged  to  travel  along  in  a  tunnel  and 
see  only  the  roof  instead  of  the  blue  sky.  The 
difference  in  speaking  to  her  directly  is  like  a 
little  bird,  as  if  the  little  bird  had  a  broken 
wing  instead  of  being  perfect  and  normal  and 
could  fly. '  * 

(Are  you  happy  now?) 

"Yes,  much  happier.  You  can  consider  that 
I  am  happy.    At  least  I  am  calm." 

(Have  you  companionship  which  is  pleasant 
to  you?) 

"I  enjoy  the  fleeting  moments  with  my 
brother,  the  long  talks  with  my  mother,  the  rec- 
ords of  my  father's  peregrinations,  all  these. 
Then  I  have  the  privilege  of  watching  the  tapes- 
try weavers  and  the  lace  makers." 

(Do  these  tapestries  and  laces  last?) 

*  *  As  long  as  we  want  them.  You  can  hold  the 
thought  and  they  remain.  I  was  more  inter- 
ested in  these  things  than  in  music  or  art. 
There  is  a  diversity  of  spirits  who  entertain 


166  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

and  beguile  witli  their  pleasant  personalities  on 
earth.    So  they  do  here.'* 

(Is  the  ethereal  world  which  you  inhabit  near 
here  or  is  it  very  far  away?) 

' '  Near  or  far  as  thought  travels.  I  have  not 
departed  from  the  terrestrial  ether.  My  inter- 
est lies  here.  Later  I  will  explore  and  enter 
the  penumbra  of  the  other  planets.  I  will  take 
up  my  narrative  later. ' ' 

On  March  the  15th  I  asked  my  sister  if  she 
played  cards  in  the  other  world. 

**  Games  of  that  description  lose  their  test 
when  we  can  read  our  opponent's  minds.  It  is 
like  outgrown  children's  toys,  outgrown  child- 
ish things.  They  are  good  for  the  brain  on 
earth.  I  am  more  interested  in  these  little  me- 
dallions. (Shows  one  to  Mrs.  Vernon.)  You 
might  almost  call  me  a  numismatist.  Don't  be- 
little cards,  but  over  here  we  can  read  each 
other's  minds  and  over  here  there  are  things 
much  more  interesting." 

(I  am  very  grateful  to  have  the  opportunity 
of  expressing  your  thoughts  which  I  intend  to 
do  later.) 

*  *  Anna 's  monument  to  me.    My  memorial. ' ' 

(If  I  have  helped  you  over  there  by  continu- 
ing these  communications  it  is  my  greatest  joy 
and  consolation.) 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  167 

"Yon  have,  indeed,  and  with  the  greatest  rev- 
erence I  how  before  such  serious  effort.  I 
would  never  have  had  any  patience  with  it  on 
earth.  The  convolutions  of  destiny  are  so  curi- 
ous. That  one  should  without  intention  have 
helped  their  fellows,  without  really  consciously 
intending  it.  You  have  helped  me  because  you 
and  Mrs.  Vernon  are  so  interested.  I  have 
helped  you.     So  we  are  interwoven." 

(I  do  not  feel  as  if  I  had  been  separated  from 
you,  darling;  I  have  tried  to  live  with  you.) 

''So  it  has  really  transpired  that  we  have 
been  together.  I  have  been  brought  to  see  that 
commerce  in  souls  is  the  offshoot  of  an  unde- 
veloped condition,  and  therefore  not  to  be 
harshly  criticized,  but  prevented  when  possible, 
as  it  leads  nowhere  and  causes  a  really  serious 
disintegration.  It  seems  frivolous,  it  is  more 
than  that;  it  really  is  more  serious.  Anna 
understands  that  she  should  prevent  it  when 
possible.  She  has  prevented  it.  In  a  way  I  am 
almost  glad  that  I  came  over  here.  I  don 't  know 
if  Anna  can  really  understand  that  it  is  I,  when 
I  say  that  I  am  almost  glad  to  have  come  over 
here.  I  see  the  meaning  of  it  all.  At  first  I 
could  not  say  it,  I  longed  so  to  come  back,  but 
now  I  am  almost  glad  to  have  come  over  here.'* 


168  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

On  March  the  25th  I  spoke  aloud  to  my  sister 
saying  that  our  other  sister  was  missing  her 
very  much  these  days. 

*'She  misses  me.    I  know  she  misses  me.** 

(If  I  could  only  see  you  or  feel  your  presence 
directly.) 

*'l  preside  at  the  ouija,  too,  but  cannot  al- 
ways control  the  conditions.  Anna  has  not 
seen  the  medallions  lately." 

(I  have  tried  to  see  them;  what  is  the  mat- 
ter?) 

* '  You  have  to  grab  at  them.  Sometimes  con- 
ditions are  favorable,  sometimes  not.  I  knew 
Anna  was  disappointed;  that  is  why  I  spoke 
of  them. '  * 

(Where  are  you  now;  in  what  part  of  the 
room?) 

Mrs.  Vernon  said  that  she  had  perceived  my 
sister  seated  in  the  chair  next  to  her,  while  she 
was  communicating.  Now  Mrs.  Vernon  said, 
**She  is  standing  near  the  lamp,  running  her 
fingers  through  the  fringe.  Now  she  has  come 
to  the  table  where  you  are  writing;  is  leaning 
over  it  with  both  hands  resting  on  it." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  ''Dear  Anna,  her  hand 
gets  so  tired,  but  she  goes  on  just  the  same." 

Mrs.  Vernon  saw  tears  in  my  sister's  eyes 
and  saw  her  putting  her  hand  over  mine. 

(I  would  not  be  separated  from  you.) 


"THE  PERFECT  ROUND"  169 

"And  so  here  I  am.  It  is  an  anniversary 
time  and  therefore  a  little  more  soul  stirring 
even  than  usual.  You  have  tried  so  hard  to  do 
everything  just  as  I  would  have  done.  I  thank 
you  for  your  devotion." 

On  the  1st  of  April,  I  asked  my  sister  if  she 
would  come  some  night  and  speak  with  Mrs. 
Horton  and  me  with  the  ouija  board. 

"Any  night  when  you  and  Marguerite  are 
together.    I  will  try. ' ' 

(How  do  you  send  for  any  one?  Mrs.  B.'s  boy, 
for  instance?) 

"Thought  waves;  currents  of  concentration 
of  the  waves  and  currents.  Controls  around 
a  medium  sense  approaching  conditions.  The 
sitters  bring  their  friends." 

(Is  it  because  you  can  read  thoughts  that  you 
can  prophesy?) 

"On  the  plan  that  coming  events  cast  their 
shadows  before.  The  embryo  must  form  some- 
where, and  we  see  the  process." 

(Do  you  mean  the  embryo  of  thought?) 

"Yes.  The  embryo  of  thought  when  the 
event  is  planned  as  a  snowball  has  to  be  formed 
into  a  ball.  The  recipient  gets  the  ball  without 
thinking  of  the  process  of  formation." 

(These  are  the  days  of  our  agony  when  you 
were  passing  from  our  sight.) 


170  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

"You  must  forget  them  and  think  of  my 
resurrection. '* 

(It  is  a  great  grief.) 

"Yes,  also  affection.  I  could  point  out  the 
compensation  that  exists  in  the  correlation  of 
individuals,  which  creates  happiness  or  unhap- 
piness  for  our  brothers  and  sisters.  We  can- 
not rid  ourselves  of  our  obligations  to  each 
other.  We  do  not  suffer  alone.  When  we 
spread  happiness  it  is  not  alone.  Your  love 
which  has  brought  us  together  has  not  stopped 
there.  You  have  spread  it  and  humanity  bene- 
fits— does  not  stop  in  a  selfish  gratification.  All 
your  love  for  me  is  of  use.  Try  and  see  the 
broad  side  of  it  even  in  this.  The  poor  soul 
who  came  here  yesterday  went  away  with  com- 
fort." 

This  refers  to  the  comforting  messages  re- 
ceived by  a  friend  from  her  son,  and  to  the  fact 
that  I  had  arranged  the  meeting  with  Mrs. 
Vernon. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Investigatobs 

DUEING  the  month  of  April,  Mr.  Friend 
communicated  to  the  ahnost  entire  exclu- 
sion of  my  sister.  At  the  end  of  the  sitting  of 
May  the  1st,  on  the  eve  of  my  departure  for 
Hot  Springs,  Va.,  she  very  sweetly  expressed 
her  concern  for  my  health. 

"Let  me  say  'Au  revoir,'  dear  Anna;  do  not 
exhaust  yourself  reducing,  let  it  come  gradu- 
ally." 

(Are  you  happy  now?) 

*'It  is  cumulative ;  it  grows  as  it  goes,  so  they 
tell  me,  until  one  reaches  the  acme  of  bliss.'* 

At  Hot  Springs,  the  medallions  often  ap- 
peared upon  my  eyes  and  I  received  a  message 
from  my  sister,  through  a  friend,  who  has  the 
gift  of  automatic  handwriting.  The  message 
is  so  characteristic  of  my  sister  and  so  indica- 
tive of  her  development,  that  I  include  it  in  my 
records.  The  guiding  control  of  this  friend 
first  moved  her  hand,  which  wrote  with  great 
rapidity  and  witljout  correction  or  hesitation. 

''You  have  been  able  to  open  up  a  different 

171 


172  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

vision  to  Mrs.  Anna  de  Koven.  She  has  fol- 
lowed a  very  definite  line,  which  has  been  laid 
down  by  her  guides  and  her  loved  ones  to  help 
her,  as  her  clear  point  of  view  will  help  you.  It 
is  our  desire  that  all  the  circles  should  at  some 
time  merge  into  one.  At  the  present  that  is 
difficult,  as  it  is  extremely  hard  for  the  human 
brain  (not  the  immortal  mind)  to  grasp  this 
great  truth,  that  every  point  of  view,  every 
message,  and  every  belief  that  is  guided  from 
this  side  is  not  diverse  in  its  teachings,  but 
merely  a  part  of  the  great  whole  and  necessary 
to  make  the  circle  complete.  We  of  your  circle 
and  those  of  Anna  de  Koven 's  circle  are  beside 
you  now  and  the  current  is  extremely  strong 
and  easy.  You  are  all  surrounded  by  great 
love. 

"I  have  a  message  to  deliver  to  Anna  de 
Koven  from  her  sister. 

"Since  you  have  been  down  here  you  have 
allowed  your  heart  to  grow  in  grief.  Try, 
dearest,  to  shake  off  the  feeling  of  blankness, 
for  I  am  content  in  the  aura  of  your  love,  and 
altho  you  cannot  see  me  except  at  moments 
(this  may  mean  the  pictures  of  her  face  on  the 
medallions — A.  de  K.)  surely  you  realize  my 
nearness.  Not  only  that,  but  you  have  been 
much  favored  by  the  great  souls  in  the  work 
which  has  been  given  you  to  do,  and  you  can- 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  178 

not  do  it  justice  with  a  sore  and  aching  heart. 
Feel  your  soul  expand  with  love  and  tenderness, 
not  only  for  those  so  near  and  dear  to  us  both, 
but  for  every  living  creature  you  are  going  to 
benefit  by  your  hand.  Exude  love  through 
every  word  of  the  coming  book.  Let  the  light 
of  real  faith  shine  forth  from  your  eyes.  It  is 
a  challenge,  dearest  Anna,  from  the  masters, 
*to  arms.'  If  you  wish  to  stand  behind  our 
words,  you  must  by  your  joy  in  my  release,  for 
it  was  strictly  that,  show  your  happiness  in  my 
nearness.  It  is  always  a  positive  fact  that  in 
communications  through  a  conscious  or  an  un- 
conscious mind  our  words  are  somewhat  col- 
ored by  that  mind  and  we  must  needs  use  the 
instrument,  such  as  vocabulary,  etc.,  to  express 
ourselves,  but  I  speak,  and  you  must  and  do 
recognize  my  words.    I  send  greetings  to  you 

M and  thank  you,  D— — ,  for  your  hand; 

it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  write  for  you.  I  shall 
benefit  by  the  acquaintance  of  the  masters  of 
this  circle,  as  there  is  unlimited  knowledge 
over  here  on  all  subjects,  and  the  more  I  learn, 
the  more  I  shall  have  to  give  you,  dearest 
Anna.  Once  more,  I  want  to  warn  you  not  to 
be  sad,  for  you  make  me  sad  in  your  sadness. 
There  is  much  for  you  to  do  in  life  and  we  are 
co-workers,  and  nearer  in  many  ways  than  we 
should  ever  have  been  able  to  be  on  earth,     God 


174  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

bless  you,  darling,  I  love  this  and  conld  con- 
tinue, but  have  said  my  say.  (In  answer  to  a 
question  about  my  grandchild.)  Do  not  be 
distressed  about  him.  He  is  being  helped  by 
one  of  the  Investigators,  and  when  I  am  not 
with  you  I  see  him  and  of  course  glimpse  the 
others,  too.  He  will  be  better  soon,  but  you  are 
not  to  worry.  You  must  strive  to  realize  that 
God's  love  and  knowledge  is  better  and  far 
wiser  than  even  mine  with  its  growth  of  vision 
here  on  this  plane.  Embrace  the  love  of  God. 
Your  love  makes  a  pure  ray  of  light  straight 
from  your  heart  to  mine,  no  matter  where  I  am 
or  what  I  am  doing.  I  am  always  conscious 
of  your  love  and  that  is  why  it  hurts  me  when 
I  cannot  make  my  love  as  concrete  to  you  as 
yours  is  to  me.  God  bless  you,  darling;  be 
brave,  for  you  have  much  to  do." 

The  evidential  point  in  this  message  is  con- 
tained in  the  reference  to  the  "Investigators" 
and  their  care  of  my  grandchild.  The  group 
of  four  men  who  call  themselves  the  ''Investi- 
gators," includes  Mr.  John  L.  Ticknor  of 
Bridgeport,  New  York,  who  is,  in  Dr.  Hyslop's 
opinion,  a  medium  of  very  remarkable  powers. 
He  possesses  clairvoyance  and  clairaudience 
in  a  very  high  degree,  and  in  trance  has  given 
a  volume  of  important  information  and  mes- 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  176 

sages  of  proved  veracity.  Some  one  of  the 
group  of  his  ''controls"  has,  according  to  this 
message,  undertaken  to  watch  over  my  grand- 
child. This  idea  was  not  a  part  of  my  con- 
sciousness or  of  the  friends  who  received  the 
message.  She  had  never  heard  of  the  "Investi- 
gators. ' ' 

Founded  for  the  purpose  indicated  by  their 
name,  the  small  '^ Society  of  Investigators," 
who  are  all  business  men  holding  positions  of 
trust,  has  had  a  remarkable  experience  through 
association  with  Mr.  Ticknor,  who  was  at  one 
time  an  assistant  manager  of  a  railroad  and  is 
now  a  bond  merchant.  Mr.  Ticknor,  who  is  the 
son  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  inherited  his  re- 
markable powers  from  his  mother.  Since 
childhood  he  has  seen  discarnate  spirits,  and, 
unaware  that  others  were  unable  to  see  them, 
was  warned  by  his  mother  against  mentioning 
his  powers  to  his  companions.  At  an  amateur 
seance,  conducted  by  one  of  his  friends  he  fell 
asleep  and  rising  to  his  feet  delivered  an  elo- 
quent discourse  regarding  the  constitution  of 
the  other  world  to  his  amazed  companions. 
The  spirit  of  an  officer  in  the  Civil  war.  Col. 
Horace  Clark  Lee,  had  for  the  first  time  en- 
tranced Mr.  Ticknor. 

Col.  Lee  was  found  to  have  existed  in  the 
flesh,  and  to  have  occupied  an  official  position 


176  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

subsequent  to  the  war  at  Springfield,  the  home 
of  one  of  the  Investigators.  Col.  Lee's  signa- 
ture, as  given  by  himself,  while  in  possession 
of  Mr.  Tickaor,  has  been  identified.  It  is  pre- 
cisely similar  to  that  on  the  public  documents 
at  Springfield. 

Busy  and  successful  as  Mr.  Tidmor  is  in  his 
worldly  occupations,  he  can  only  spare  two 
evenings  in  each  month  for  the  practice  and 
demonstration  of  his  remarkable  powers.  One 
of  these  evenings  is  fixed  for  the  middle  of 
each  month  in  Springfield  and  the  other  for  the 
first  Saturday  in  each  month  in  New  York.  I 
was  present  at  the  March  meeting  in  New  York 
and  again  on  April  the  5th.  I  saw  Mr.  Ticknor 
fall  into  trance,  and  rise  to  his  feet  as  Col.  Lee. 
In  life  Col.  Lee  possessed  considerable  orator- 
ical gifts  and  on  both  occasions  when  I  have 
heard  him  discourse,  he  has  discussed  the  state 
of  the  soul  before  and  after  its  earthly  incarna- 
tion. The  complete  change  of  personality,  the 
use  of  long  and  carefully  composed  sentences, 
the  characteristic  pauses  and  gestures  of  the 
trained  orator  were  extremely  impressive  to 
me,  who  had  never  before  witnessed  the  phe- 
nomenon of  trance  possession. 

After  the  conclusion  of  Col.  Lee's  discourses 
another  personality  possesses  Mr.  Ticknor, 
Blatjk  Havi4,  an  Indian,  who  has  given  a  strik- 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  177 

ingly  picturesque  account  of  his  earthly  life  in 
Canada.  Unlike  Col.  Lee,  Black  Hawk  never 
discourses  about  the  problems  of  eternal  life, 
but  conveys  to  those  present  at  the  meetings 
messages  from  numbers  of  spirit  visitors,  who 
come  to  speak  with  their  friends.  That  no 
knowledge  of  these  two  personalities  was  pos- 
sessed by  Mr.  Ticknor  prior  to  their  appear- 
ance in  this  extraordinary  invasion  of  his  own 
organisms,  is  as  indubitable  as  Mr.  Ticknor 's 
unquestioned  honesty,  as  attested  by  all  who 
know  him.  Black  Hawk  is  humorous,  speaks 
with  a  curious  accent,  borrowed  from  the 
French  Canadian  woodsmen,  and  is  quite  as 
definite  a  personality  as  Col.  Lee. 

The  small  current  expenses  of  the  Society  of 
Investigators  are  borne  by  the  four  men  who 
compose  it  and  their  only  desire  is  that  those 
who  attend  the  meetings  should  do  so  in  the 
spirit  of  honest  investigation  which  they  them- 
selves exemplify. 

Mr.  Ticknor  himself  with  Mr.  Fell  and  two 
brothers  Sutton  are  the  four  members  of  the 
association,  and  neither  Mr.  Ticknor  nor  his 
friends  of  the  society  accept  any  remuneration 
for  his  demonstrations  for  any  purpose  what- 
soever. A  very  large  number  of  *Hests"  of 
the  truthfulness  of  the  messages  received 
by  him  are  contained  in  the   records  which 


178  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

are   stenographically  taken  at  each  meeting. 

At  the  meeting  of  April  the  5th  held  in  my 
own  house,  my  sister  and  our  parents  appeared 
and  the  former's  message  to  me  was  given  by 
the  voice  of  Black  Hawk,  with  a  striking  imita- 
tion of  her  own  accents  of  tenderness  and  affec- 
tion. 

Black  Hawk:  *^ There  is  a  spirit  here,  your 
sister'*  (pointing  to  me). 

(Yes.    How  does  she  look?) 

Black  Hawk:  **She  goes  to  you  and  she  says, 
'Anna,  do  you  remember  this  day  last  year?'  " 

(She  knows  that  I  remember.) 

Black  Hawk:  "She  says,  'What  a  wonderful 
year  it  has  been  for  me,  this  last  year.  I  am 
satisfied.'  " 

Black  Hawk:  *'She  fades  away.  She  is  a 
woman,  not  like  you,  older.'* 

(She  is  younger.) 

Black  Hawk:  *'Her  hair  is  grayer  than  yours. 
The  same  eyes." 

On  April  the  7th,  when  I  asked  through  Mrs. 
Vernon  if  she  had  been  present  on  the  5th  of 
April,  which  was  in  fact  the  anniversary  of  her 
death,  my  sister  replied: 

*  *  Yes,  of  course,  I  was  there.  He  got  it  mixed 
up.  He  saw  Mamma ;  he  got  my  message  cor- 
rectly; we  were  both  there;  he  described 
Mamma. ' ' 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  179 

On  April  the  20th,  in  a  private  sitting  with 
Mr.  Ticknor  at  Bridgeport,  my  sister  spoke 
with  the  utmost  freedom  and  with  apparent 
pleasure  in  the  easy  mode  of  communication 
through  the  entranced  medium. 

This  method  is  apparently  easier  than  that 
which  Mrs.  Vernon's  mediumship  provides, 
probably  because  of  the  immediate  presence  of 
the  possessing  spirit,  with  whom  the  communi- 
cator can  speak  directly. 

Black  Hawk:  ''Your  sister  is  here;  she  says, 
'You  sent  a  messenger  for  me.  I  was  in  my 
home  in  the  West.  So  nice  that  we  can  speak 
in  this  way.  A  year  ago  I  could  not  speak,  and 
now  I  am  here  and  I  can  speak,  not  directly  yet, 
but  I  will  be  able  to  do  so  later.  Father  and 
Mother  are  with  me  and  we  are  happy  together. 
What  month  is  it?'  " 

(It  is  April.) 

"Oh,  yes  I  It  was  in  April  that  I  died.  It 
has  really  been  a  wonderful  year.  It  was  so 
wonderful  when  I  died.  I  want  you  to  know 
about  my  illness.  The  operation  was  delayed 
too  long.  He  soon  told  me  and  then  it  was  too 
late.  It  developed  into  pneumonia.  It  was 
not  that  which  caused  my  death.  It  was  due  to 
septic  poisoning  due  to  many  things  which  I 
should  not  have  done. ' ' 

(Was  it  the  antrum?) 


180  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

**Yes,  it  was  that.'* 

(Oh!  my  darling,  why  did  you  neglect  it?) 

**Do  not  think  any  more  about  it.  It  was 
harder  for  me  than  for  you.  Now,  what  I 
want  to  say,  it  is  all  over  and  I  am  just  getting 
to  be  at  peace.  I  wish  you  could  have  been 
with  me  at  the  end.  I  knew  I  was  going,  I  felt 
it  through  me,  I  hated  it.  The  weather  was  so 
exquisite  and  I  loved  my  sea-side  home." 

(How  does  she  look,  Black  Hawk?) 

Black  Hawk:  **She  is  about  forty-seven  or 
forty-eight.  Yes,  my  girl,  I  have  guessed  your 
age.  She  is  tall  and  slender.  Her  hair  is 
lighter  than  yours  and  her  eyes.  She  has  a 
very  pretty  nose  and  a  pretty  mouth.  A  lovely 
woman.  She  is  dressed  in  a  light  sport 
sweater;  she  gave  me  that,  I  would  not  have 
known  what  to  call  it." 

(I  love  you  always.) 

** Don't  cry  any  more  at  night.  I  would  like 
to  talk  about  your  books.  Make  it  in  two  vol- 
umes, books  of  an  ordinary  size.  Put  in  one 
the  messages  you  have  received  from  me  and 
the  others  in  the  second.  Make  a  running  com- 
ment. If  something  happens  one  day  and  the 
next  week  something  happens  which  agrees 
with  it,  explain  it." 

(Where  are  you  living?) 

"In  a  house  like  our  old  home.    Much  like 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  181 

it  only  the  grounds  are  more  extensive.  I  am 
living  there  with  Papa  and  Mamma." 

(Who  built  this  house?) 

**Papa  built  it." 

(Is  it  very  far  away?) 

"Not  very  far.  I  am  getting  weaker  now 
and  must  go.  Not  up  or  down;  it  is  out.  I 
don't  know  exactly  where;  when  I  leave  you  I 
go  there." 

Black  Hawk:  "There  is  a  man  here  and  he 
says  his  name  is  F.,  and  he  wants  to  speak  to 
Anna." 

F. :  "I  am  very  much  pleased.  Your  sister 
is  with  us  and  is  doing  very  nicely." 

Then  follows  some  advice  about  a  book  I  had 
been  writing,  ending  with  the  characteristic 
advice  to  "try  it"  in  a  small  place  first,  on  the 
principle  of  trying  it  on  the  dog. 

(Are  you  with  me  often?) 

"Yes,  your  house  seems  large  to  me.  You 
know  my  taste  was  simple.  Not  exactly  my 
idea  of  a  home. ' ' 

(I  do  not  find  it  so.  I  built  that  big  room 
for  musicians.) 

"  It  is  a  fine  room. 

(What  are  you  doing?) 

"I  am  organizing  a  scheme  of  commerce. 
America  should  rule  the  world.  Germany's 
power  is  finished.    I  belong  to  a  committee  of 


18«  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ten,  six  of  whom  are  Illinois  men.  We  are  plan- 
ning commercial  relations  with  Canada  and 
Mexico.  There  is  also  a  large  field  in  South 
America.  The  United  States  must  rule.  Your 
sister  is  happy.  She  came  suddenly,  unexpect- 
edly even  to  us.  Suddenly  even  to  us.  She  is 
doing  well.  I  was  fortunate  in  having  beauti- 
ful children." 

The  attitude  of  special  kindness  to  the  poor 
and  lowly  which  my  father  always  maintained 
was  in  some  way  perceived  by  the  strange 
speaker  in  this  remarkable  interview. 

Black  Hawk:  *'That  is  a  very  fine  old  gentle- 
man. People  don't  want  to  speak  with  an  In- 
dian, but  not  this  man.  He  be  kind  to  Black 
Hawk  and  Black  Hawk  remembers.  Remem- 
ber,— God  came  to  the  poor  man.  The  God  of 
Love  came  from  above  to  help  the  working  man. 
Love  alone  you  cannot  buy.  God  and  love  you 
can  always  have." 

After  my  father's  departure,  the  father  of 
the  friend  who  accompanied  me  came  to  speak 
with  her,  and  when  he  also,  saying  that  he  was 
getting  weaker  and  could  not  stay  with  us,  de- 
parted on  his  way,  Black  Hawk  appealed  to  us 
to  speak  with  him. 

Black  Hawk:  **I  want  to  talk  with  you.  It 
is  pleasant  for  me  to  talk.  Ask  Black  Hawk 
some  questions." 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  183 

(Tell  us  about  yourself.) 

"My  father  was  a  chief,  and  his  squaw  was 
of  the  Hurons.  They  went  south  to  the  Huron 
country.  My  father  was  killed  and  my  mother 
came  back  a  long  way,  carrying  me  when  I  was 
a  little  red  baby.  She  reached  over  to  get 
some  water,  leaving  me  on  the  bank  of  the  river. 
She  fell  in  and  was  drowned.  Some  braves 
came  along  after  a  while  and  found  me.  They 
saw  the  saored  mark  on  my  body  of  the  chief- 
tain's child  and  took  me,  after  a  while,  to  my 
father's  country,  where  I  was  brought  up.*' 

(Where  is  that  country?) 

*'It  was  called  Fort  Gerry,  up  north,  what  you 
call  Winnipeg.  I  grew  up  tall  and  strong,  and 
one  day  I  made  a  journey  to  a  post,  and  there 
by  the  house  I  saw  the  factor's  daughter,  Alice 
McDonald.  Her  father,  a  Scotchman.  He 
did  not  want  to  do  with  Indian,  but  she  loved 
me  (Black  Hawk  strikes  his  breast),  and  we 
were  marry.  We  went  to  live  in  a  bungalow 
together  by  the  side  of  a  lake. ' ' 

(You  were  happy  then.  Black  Hawk?) 

"Yes,  but  after  a  while  she  died.  I  buried 
her  at  night  by  the  side  of  the  lake.  The  moon 
was  shining  over  the  mountain.  I  got  a  soldier 
to  cut  her  name  on  the  wooden  cross.  'Alice 
McDonald,  Black  Hawk's  Squaw,  Little  Com- 
rade.'   I  covered  her  grave  with  moss  and 


184  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

stones  and  it  is  there  yet  unless  it  be  taken 
away.  Little  comrade,  little  comrade  I  Then 
I  went  back  to  nature,  and  nature  took  me.  No- 
body ever  took  Black  Hawk  but  nature.  I  had 
a  disease  called  Tuburcu — Hemo — you  know,  I 
coughed  blood.  I  did  not  want  to  live,  I  used 
to  strike  my  breast  to  bring  them  on,  and  so  I 
died.  I  was  Indian  and  I  tried  to  be  something 
else  and  I  was  nothing,  nothing! 

**  Huron  or  Athabascan,  the  Indians  have  vi- 
sion, but  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  put  it 
through.  My  people  have  the  vision  but  no 
strength  (gesture  of  much  force  and  eloquence), 
no  force  to  put  it  through." 

(We  know  that  you  have  a  kind  heart,  Black 
Hawk,  and  that  you  like  to  help  us.) 

Black  Hawk  (modestly) :  ''I  have  learned  to 
speak  better  English.  At  first,  when  I  took 
what  you  call  'possession'  of  this  man,  I  could 
not  make  myself  understood,  but  now  I  have 
learned." 

(Is  it  by  speaking  with  the  people  of  the 
earth?) 

**Yes,  and  I  go  to  school  also.  I  have  helped 
in  this  war  by  talking  English  to  those  soldiers 
who  were  with  the  Canadians. '  * 

(Will  the  troubles  in  the  Old  World  ever  fin- 
ish!) 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  185 

**Yes,  everything  changes,  nothing  lasts. 
Everything  must  change.'* 

(There  is  so  much  cruelty;  so  many  poor  peo- 
ple killed.) 

**I  do  not  know  whether  that  is  cruel.  It  is 
not  so  bad  to  be  rid  of  a  poor  garment.  Do 
not  think  that  that  is  so  bad." 

During  this  long  conversation  with  the  living 
dead,  my  friend  had  continually  called  for  her 
husband.  Her  grandmother  and  great-aunt, 
whom  she  had  not  known  in  Ife,  came  and  prom- 
ised to  send  for  him.  Her  father  also  was 
asked  to  help  in  the  search,  and  still  he  did  not 
come.  Finally,  speaking  in  Indian,  Black  Hawk 
ordered  his  messengers,  who  he  said  were  al- 
ways near  him,  to  go  out  and  find  him.  He 
asked  for  the  exact  number  of  the  street  in 
which  he  had  lived  and  the  number  and  street 
of  my  friend's  present  residence.  Then  at  last, 
after  a  few  more  minutes  of  waiting,  he  ex- 
claimed with  delighted  satisfaction : 

**Now,  I  see  a  man.    He  is  like '* 

Then  followed  an  exact  description  of  the 
earthly  appearance  of  my  friend's  husband, 
who  had  at  last  answered  to  the  call.  The  con- 
versation which  ensued  between  this  husband 
and  wife  was  far  too  intimate  to  be  recorded  by 
me,  who  was  the  reverent  listener  to  protesta- 
tions of  undying  love,  a  love  as  fresh  and  ardent 


186  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

as  in  life  and  expressed  in  careful  and  authori- 
tative answers  to  questions  as  to  the  health  and 
training  of  their  children — full  of  help  to  their 
mother  and  showing  that  he  never  was  uncon- 
scious of  their  varying  conditions,  never  re- 
laxed his  watchful  care.  So  ended  this  won- 
derful meeting  in  which,  whatever  may  have 
been  its  source  or  origin  in  whatever  mysteri- 
ous laws,  we  felt  that  we  had  really  been  talk- 
ing in  perfect  familiarity  with  the  departed. 

On  the  28th  of  June  I  saw  Mrs.  Vernon  in 
Manchester,  Vermont,  when  my  sister  again 
communicated,  telling  me  more  of  her  develop- 
ment. 

"I  am  very  different  from  what  I  was  when 
I  last  spoke  to  you.  I  see  now  that  the  things 
I  cared  most  about  are  not  worth  while.  I 
would  have  laughed  if  any  one  had  said  so  when 
I  was  alive.  I  have  not  lost  my  humor,  but  I 
am  getting  an  idea  of  the  purpose  of  creation. 
Mamma's  conversation  now  interests  me;  Anna 
would  be  amused.  It  is  not  as  it  was  in  the 
old  days  when  I  would  not  listen.  I  have  a 
profound  gratitude  to  Anna,  she  provided  me 
with  an  occupation.  She  kept  me  in  touch  with 
the  world  I  had  lost.  One  cannot  lose  all  one 
held  dear  so  suddenly.  It  was  like  looking 
down  into  a  great  dark  cavern.    I  was  lost ;  sud- 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  187 

denly  out  of  the  dark,  Anna  appeared.  It  was 
my  salvation. ' ' 

(It  was  mine  also.) 

' '  There  is  a  group  here  who  are  interested  in 
this  communication,  but  the  majority  of  people 
over  here  are  just  as  ignorant  of  it  as  those  on 
earth.  It  is  of  infinite  as  well  as  of  finite  im- 
portance. ' ' 

(Did  you  send  me  that  message  through  Mrs. 
C and  Mrs.  W at  Hot  Springs?) 

**I  did  try  and  they  did  well.  Different  me- 
dium and  different  method. ' ' 

Another  message  from  my  sister  remains  to 
be  recorded.  It  came  through  Black  Hawk, 
when  at  the  July  meeting  he  spoke  through  Mr. 
Ticknor.    I  was  not  present  at  this  meeting. 

*'My  knowledge  is  increasing  daily  in  this 
wonderful  place,  this  wonderful  land. 

*'I  have  been  here  little  over  a  year  now.  I 
have  communicated  on  several  occasions  with 
my  loved  ones,  particularly  my  dear  Anna.  She 
was  very  precious  to  me. 

**I  assisted  in  the  writing  of  several  books 
of  travel,  of  description,  and  here  I  am  in  this 
wonderful  land,  seeing  wonderful  things,  really 
a  new  Heaven  and  a  new  Earth.  I  am  anxious 
to  write  a  book  and  tell  the  people  of  your  world 
of  all  the  wonderful  things,  strange  and  mar- 
velous sights  and  scenes  which  I  know  about. 


188  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

My  husband  enjoyed  the  credit  for  the  books 
and  rightly  so. 

* '  Sometime  I  wish  to  be  the  author  of  a  book 
which  is  read  in  your  world  and  which  people 
may  enjoy." 

Question:  ''When  would  you  like  to  write 
it?" 

Answer:  "I  am  getting  notes  together  now. 
I  would  like  to  give  it  to  Anna. ' ' 

Question:  *'Can  Mrs.  de  Koven  do  auto- 
matic writing?" 

Answer:  ''Not  now.  I  may  be  able  to  com- 
municate with  her  otherwise.  Father  did  well 
by  us.  He  was  always  very  kind  to  us.  Dear 
Father  is  with  me  now.  Tell  Anna  that  I  love 
her  and  that  I  have  sent  word  through  you  to 
her  now." 

(We  will  write  out  what  you  have  said  and 
give  it  to  her.) 

"Thank  you.    Goodnight." 

The  high  evidentiality  of  this  message  rests 
with  the  fact  that  Mr.  Ticknor  was  absolutely 
ignorant,  as  were  all  but  the  immediate  mem- 
bers of  our  family,  that  my  sister  had  assisted 
in  suggestion  and  criticism  in  the  writing  of 
her  husband's  books. 

The  development  in  my  sister  both  mentally 
and  spiritually  since  her  residence  in  the  other 
world  must  be  evident  to  all  readers  of  her 


THE  INVESTIGATORS  189 

communications.  I  cannot  too  often  insist 
upon  the  clarity  of  her  mind.  It  was  in  fact 
the  foundation  of  her  excellent  judgment,  of 
her  impatience  with  undue  complaint,  which 
rendered  her  advice  on  all  matters  which  were 
brought  to  her  of  invaluable  worth. 

Her  self-reproach  for  her  life  of  helpfulness 
through  joy,  expresses  her  present  rigidly  clear 
perception  that  she  had  been  too  occupied  in 
the  happiness  of  her  wonderfully  unclouded 
years  to  develop  her  mental  powers.  The 
school  she  learned  in  was  that  of  happiness,  but 
those  lessons  were  by  no  means  used  for  her 
own  personal  gratification  solely,  but  were  ex- 
tended to  each  and  every  one  who  came  within 
the  radiant  circle  of  her  acquaintance.  At  early 
morning  she  was  at  the  telephone  arranging, 
during  many  hours,  for  the  occupations  and 
pleasures  of  those  who  looked  to  her  for  daily 
direction,  so  that  sometimes  she  was  far  more 
exhausted  than  she  realized.  Decision,  firm  and 
lucid,  she  brought  to  the  training  of  her  chil- 
dren. As  a  mother  she  was  well-nigh  faultless, 
both  in  sympathy  and  control.  One  and  all, 
those  who  knew  her  were  content  to  share  her 
sunlight,  feeling  that  one  hour  with  her  was 
worth  any  sacrifice  of  other  occupations,  and  a 
willing  compliance  with  her  desires. 

So  she  lived  through  her  earthly  existence, 


190  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

and  now  in  this  new  and  continuing  life,  she 
prepares,  according  to  this  last  message,  to  ex- 
press the  hitherto  undeveloped  powers  of  mind 
and  spirit  which  are  part  of  her  remarkable 
endowment. 


CHAPTEE  Vn 
Me.  Edwin  Feiend 

THE  reason  for  the  adoption  of  Mrs.  Vernon 
as  a  medium  for  the  transmission  of  their 
messages,  and  an  approved  agent  for  the  pros- 
ecution of  their  purpose  of  establishing  the  fact 
of  conmiunication  by  the  group  of  discamate 
members  of  the  Societies  for  Psychical  Re- 
search in  England  and  America,  does  not  seem 
far  to  seek.  The  friend  who  accompanied  Mr. 
Edwin  Friend  on  his  fateful  voyage  on  the  Lusi- 
tania  had  been  closely  associated  with  the  Amer- 
ican Society  and  was  a  friend  of  Dr.  Hodgson. 
Edwin  Friend  had  been  prepared  to  devote  his 
whole  time  to  the  interests  of  the  American 
Society,  and  was,  as  has  been  before  stated,  in 
the  act  of  carrying  a  large  number  of  Mrs.  Ver- 
non's records  to  the  English  Society  when  he 
was  lost  with  the  Lusitania. 

Only  once,  when  Mr.  Myers  made  his  appre- 
ciative coroments  about  my  sister,  has  any  mem- 
ber of  this  group  other  than  Mr.  Friend  com- 
municated by  name  with  Mrs.  Vernon,  although 

191 


19«  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

on  peveral  occasions  they  have  said  that  Dr. 
Hodgson  and  Prof.  James  and  Mr.  Myers  were 
always  present  to  aid  in  the  conununications. 
They  have  also  said  that  they  "came  over  tre- 
mendously interested  in  this  thing  and  have  kept 
at  it  as  it  is  the  only  thing  which  lasts." 

They  have  also  commented  upon  the  favor- 
able condition  arising  from  the  intense  and  mu- 
tual desire  of  my  sister  and  myself  to  keep  in 
touch  with  each  other.  They,  apparently,  im- 
mediately adopted  her  into  their  delightful  cir- 
cle of  "merriment  and  light-heartedness, ' * 
teaching  her  how  to  speak  along  the  electric 
thought  wires  they  knew  so  well  how  to  estab- 
lish and  have  warmly  praised  her  as  a  "won- 
derful communicator. ' ' 

Their  messages,  which  I  will  now  transcribe, 
are  given  in  an  invariably  scholarly  style  and 
contain  much  valuable  information  regarding 
the  methods  of  communication,  the  construction 
of  the  ethereal  world,  the  process  of  trance  pos- 
session, and  the  phenomenon  of  materialization. 

Mr.  Friend  is  always  the  spokesman. 

A  few  days  prior  to  the  sitting  of  January  the 
29th  I  had  visited  Dr.  Titus  Bull,  in  his  office.  I 
had  never  before  seen  him  and  he  did  not  inform 
me  of  his  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Friend  or  of 
any  connection  or  personal  interest  in  the  Amer- 
ican Society  for  Psychical  Research. 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  193 

Edwin  Friend :  ' '  Dr.  Bull,  Obsessions,  which 
Dr.  Bull  treats.  Tell  Dr.  Bull  to  pull  mres  on 
which  he  has  laid  hold.  He  is  trying  to  build 
up  an  organization,  an  institution.  I  think  he 
will  be  able  to  bring  this  about.  Reports,  super- 
numerary. 

'*I  was  considered  a  supernumerary.  (Humor- 
ously not  satirically.)  I  want  you  to  tell  Dr. 
Bull  that  the  supernumerary  is  working  just  as 
hard  from  his  side  as  he  (Dr.  Bull)  is  from  his." 

Mrs.  Vernon  remarked  at  this  point  that  the 
language  used  by  Mr.  Friend  was  much  more 
simple  than  that  which  his  wife  heard  when  she 
received  messages. 

* '  Now,  if  you  want  big  words.  The  subjective 
or  subliminal  is  paramount  to  the  active  con- 
sciousness in  cases  where  the  nerve  ganglia  ex- 
ceed or  outweigh  tissue  in  the  penumbra  of  the 
brain.  *  * 

(Is  the  other  world  entirely  idealistic,  or  is 
it  a  world  where  ideals  work  creatively  on  the 
ether?) 

"Your  world  is  matter  manipulated  by  brains. 
Look  at  the  forests.  Wood  has  to  be  cut  from 
them  to  make  houses  and  furniture.  Look  at 
the  coal  mines.  Coal  has  to  be  dug  to  cause 
heat.  These  are  manipulated  by  thought  and 
all  these  elements  exist  in  the  ether.  Look  at 
this  perfectly  warmed  room  heated  by  coaL 


194  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Nothing  is  manipulated  without  the  force  of 
mentality. ' ' 

(Do  the  ether  forms  make  a  practically  solid 
world?) 

' '  In  your  world  our  brains  control  our  hands 
through  manual  effort.  In  our  world  here,  brain 
force  acts  directly  on  matter." 

(Why  is  there  not  inextricable  confusion 
when  so  many  people  are  creating  things!) 

*' There  is  such  a  thing  as  an  individual  orbit, 
and  in  that  orbit  appear  only  those  things  which 
the  individual  desires.  Remember,  we  are 
speaking  of  developed  souls.  Undeveloped 
souls  have  very  little  ability  to  create.  They 
are  led  and  guided." 

(Do  the  houses  and  temples  of  learning  made 
by  the  advanced  spirits  remain  for  the  use  of 
those  who  are  less  advanced?) 

**The  most  ancient  of  earthly  antiquities  is 
modem  in  comparison  to  this."  (Shows  a  vi- 
sion of  a  Greek  temple,  with  many  beautiful  de- 
tails, such  as  scrollwork  and  carved  capitals.) 

(Do  the  landscapes  made  by  the  advance4 
spirits  also  remain  for  indefinite  periods?) 

*'We  have  at  our  disposal  the  landscapes  of 
all  the  planets.  But  the  sun  shines  for  all,  the 
sea  sparkles  for  all,  and  the  swaying  trees  give 
forth,  or  contribute  (correction  by  Mr.  Friend), 
their  essence  to  the  cosmos,  awaiting  the  divine 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  1»5 

touch  of  the  manipulator.  Don't  worry  over 
the  lack  of  permanency.  We  have  these  as  long 
as  we  want  them.  They  are  more  permanent 
than  on  earth.  Desire  makes  the  permanency. 
Shows  the  importance  of  controlling  our  de- 
sires.   Desire  the  right  thing  and  keep  it. ' ' 

Dr.  Bull  has  treated  certain  nervous  cases  on 
the  assumption  that  they  were  obsessed  or  ac- 
companied by  evil  or  earthbound  spirits.  His 
success  has  been  great  with  the  class  of  patients 
who  manifest  marked  abnormal  tendencies,  and 
he  has,  in  certain  instances,  been  able  to  iden- 
tify these  evil  entities,  when  he  has  brought  his 
patients  into  the  presence  of  a  certain  well- 
known  medium,  who  has  been  able  to  see  them 
clairvoyantly. 

Sometimes  the  evil  personalities  have  been 
persuaded  to  leave  the  patients  and  cure  has 
been  effected.  Dr.  Bull's  experiments  have  an 
important  bearing  upon  the  cases  of  so-called 
multiple  or  disassociated  personalities,  and 
illustrate  the  theory,  now  held  by  some,  that 
certain  types  of  insanity  are  actually  traceable 
to  the  influence  of  evil  spirits. 

To  found  an  institution  for  the  treatment  of 
these  cases  is  Dr.  Bull's  desire,  as  Mr.  Friend 
stated.  The  message  of  Mr.  Friend  contains 
two  excellent  * '  tests. ' '  Neither  Mrs.  Vernon  nor 
I  had  any  knowledge  that  Dr.  Bull  had  known 


196  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

him  in  life,  nor  did  we  imagine  what  the  refer- 
ence to  the  ''supernumerary"  could  mean  until 
Dr.  Bull  quite  clearly  explained  it. 

On  February  the  11th  on  the  eve  of  a  visit  to 
Boston,  where  Mrs.  Friend  now  lives,  I  said  to 
Mr.  Friend  that  I  would  be  glad  to  take  a  mes- 
sage to  her. 

''It  would  be  an  ineffable  comfort  to  Mar- 
gery. The  baby,  rompers  buttoned  tightly 
around  the  waist — ^baby  growing  fat,  blooming. 
Thank  some  one  for  the  good  care  taken  of  the 
baby.  Proud  of  something  Margery  has  done. 
Investment.  Dr.  "Worcester  hurried  into  a  de- 
cision to  sell  something;  can't  he  turn  the  lock? 
These  tests  are  important,  although  differing 
from  the  scientific  discussions  sometimes  given 
to  Mrs.  Vernon.  You  can  write  these  scientific 
things,  we  can  give  them  to  you  if  you  want 
them.  But  in  this  philosophy  the  most  scien- 
tific things  are  the  tests." 

When  in  Boston  I  saw  Mrs.  Friend  and  her 
mother  as  well  as  Dr.  Worcester.  All  the 
"tests"  were  successful.  The  baby's  waist- 
band had  grown  too  tight,  the  nurse  deserved 
the  father's  gratitude,  Mrs.  Friend  had  made 
an  investment  in  Life  Insurance,  and  Dr. 
Worcester  admitted  that  he  had  sold  something 
he  valued,  and  had  on  more  than  one  occasion 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  197 

left  his  front  door  unlocked  with  dangerous  con- 
sequences. 

Having  seen  at  Dr.  BuU's  office  a  photograph 
on  an  X-ray  plate,  taken  in  total  darkness  and 
"without  any  apparatus,  which  recorded  ad- 
hesions in  the  body  of  a  patient,  I  was  curious 
to  know  if  radio-activity  in  the  human  body 
could  make  photographs.  This  idea  led  to  the 
question  which  I  put  to  Mr.  Friend  at  the  sitting 
of  February  the  21st. 

(Is  an  excess  of  radio-activity  added  to  the 
excess  of  nerve  ganglia  in  the  brain  of  a  psy- 
chic?) 

**A  certain  displacement  in  the  psychic's 
brain  which  does  not  occur  in  ordinary  brains. 
Water-nebulous  material-penumbra,  more  of 
this  in  ordinary  brains  than  in  the  psychic's 
brain.  Less  penumbra  and  more  solid  sub- 
stance. Nerve  ganglia  cannot  run  through  the 
penumbra  unprotected;  they  are  covered  with 
matter,  protected,  insulated  like  an  electric  wire 
in  a  house.  So  the  ganglia  are  protected  by 
matter.  In  a  substance  like  calves'  brains  go 
the  ganglia.  As  there  are  more  ganglia  in  a 
psychic's  brain,  therefore  there  is  more  matter 
to  protect  the  ganglia.  Therefore  the  brain 
is  heavier  in  a  psychic.  If  more  nerves,  then 
more  matter  in  the  brain." 

(Is  there  more  radio-activity?) 


198  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

**  There  is  more  radio-activity,  more  concen- 
trated radio-activity,  more  concentrated  in  the 
psychic's  brain.  The  same  amount  in  all  brains. 
All  the  qualities  exist  in  the  magnet  but  they 
attract  only  steel.  Therefore  the  quality  in  the 
psychic's  brain  we  will  try  to  define.  Two 
pieces  of  wood  struck  together  give  no  result; 
two  pieces  of  stone  struck  together  and  we  have 
a  spark.  (Shows  a  piece  of  silver  tarnished  as 
if  it  had  stood  before  a  furnace.)  Set  this  piece 
of  silver  in  the  window  and  it  gives  very  little 
radiation,  but  rub  it  up,  and  it  gives  forth  tre- 
mendous light  in  the  sun  rays.  The  psychic- 
nerve  ganglia  have  been  rubbed  down  by  extra 
nervousness  until  they  become  reflecting  or  re- 
sponsive. Excessive  alcohol  drinking  causes 
brain  deterioration ;  this  is  well  known.  There- 
fore the  pursuit  of  pleasures  exhausting  to  the 
nervous  system  results  in  the  burning  up  of  the 
tissues  surrounding  the  ganglia  and  therefore 
the  protecting  encasement  wears  thin,  exposing 
the  sensitive  vibrating  nerves  to  passing  vibra- 
tions. ' ' 

(Is  thought  a  form  of  electricity?) 
"Electricity  is  the  conductor  of  thought." 
(What  is  the  difference  between  the  conductor 
and  the  thought!) 

* '  Thought  is  the  essence  of  spiritual  and  men- 
tal activity,  playing  upon  the  physical  or  the 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  199 

natural,  the  brain  by  means  of  electrical  cur- 
rents, there  not  here.  It  plays  upon  the  phys- 
ical part  of  the  brain,  transported  by  electrical 
currents. ' ' 

(How  are  you  getting  along  with  your  ma- 
chine?) 

This  was  the  psychic  telegraph  of  which  a 
partial  description  has  been  several  times  given 
to  Mrs.  Vernon. 

**AlasI  that  machine,  I  can  only  put  ideas 
about  that  machine  in  other  people's  heads." 

Then  as  if  to  explain  the  diflSculty  of  impress- 
ing incarnate  brains  with  his  ideas,  he  said : 

"Subconscious  effort  depends  either  upon 
the  entire  withdrawal  of  the  active  conscious- 
ness, as  in  sleep  or  trance,  or  upon  the  rarest 
form  of  concentration  found  in  geniuses  or 
psychics." 

(The  tests  were  all  good,  in  the  messages  you 
sent  to  your  wife  and  to  Dr.  Worcester.) 

Mrs.  Vernon :  * '  He  holds  out  his  hand  to  you, 
and  says,  'Thank  you  for  taking  the  message 
and  also  for  understanding  when  Margery  had 
to  leave.  *  *  * 

This  polite  little  message  recalled  the  fact 
that  I  had  only  been  able  to  speak  with  Mrs. 
Friend  for  a  moment  in  the  corridor  of  Dr. 
Worcester's  church.  But  the  idea  that  Mr. 
Friend  was  also  present  had  not  occurred  to 


goo  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

me.  It  accords  with  the  evidence  that  we  are 
indeed  often  accompanied  by  those  who  care 
for  us. 

Pursuing  my  questions  regarding  the  meth- 
ods of  communication  and  anxious  to  hear 
about  that  celestial  medium  who  must  always 
have  a  hand  in  all  communications,  I  asked 
Mr.  Friend  about  the  organization  of  the  ethe- 
real psychic. 

"It  consists  first  in  the  wish  to  do,  the  desire 
to  accomplish  a  certain  thing.  Thus  will  is  sup- 
ported or  propelled  by  a  force  which  is  exerted 
by  the  concentrated  mental  efforts  of  the  group 
whose  aim  it  is  to  establish  communication. 
The  psychic  over  here  is  chosen  for  his  tenacity 
of  purpose,  his  absolute  veracity  and  his  choice 
of  this  occupation.  These  attributes  are  all 
ingredients  of  the  psychic's  qualities,  and  we 
have  to  tell  you  of  these.  They  are  all  in  his 
mental  development.  The  mental  trend  deter- 
mines the  character  of  the  psychic.  The  psy- 
chic composition  over  here  consists  more  in 
mental  trends  and  traits  and  inclinations." 

(Are  you  communicating  directly  with  Mrs. 
Vernon?) 

'*I  am  employing  the  usual  means  or  route 
which  consists  of  pathological  explorations  by 
means  of  telepathic  currents  conducted  over 
here  by  a  group  who  have  vainly  sought  for 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  201 

years  to  find  a  brain  without  the  nsual  inhibi- 
tions. In  most  human  brains  there  are  such 
inhibitions  that  it  is  impossible  to  deal  with 
them.  There  are  certain  other  physical  inhibi- 
tions in  the  brain,  such  as  an  excess  of  the  fleshly 
substance  in  the  brain  or  an  excess  of  the 
penumbra,  but  when  the  proportion  is  balanced, 
they  can  get  through.  They  cannot  get  through 
this  sort  of  sweet-bread  substance,  because  the 
nerves  are  too  thickly  encased  or  protected." 

(Do  you  communicate  directly  with  Mrs.  Ver- 
non?) 

*' Terribly  hard  to  explain.  Not  exactly  the 
same  as  when  Mrs.  de  Koven  and  Mrs.  Vernon 
speak  together.  "When  the  messages  come  to 
Mrs.  Vernon  they  have  to  use  an  intermediary. 
The  intermediary  speaks  directly  to  Mrs.  Ver- 
non. There  is  always  some  one  who  is  consti- 
tuted to  be  a  control.  WTien  the  control  is  of 
high  order  then  the  results  are  good,  and  when 
the  control  is  of  a  low  order  the  results  are  not 
so  good,  even  though  the  medium  is  of  a  high 
order. ' ' 

(Are  you  satisfied  with  my  questions?) 

"Oh,  very  interesting,  very  interesting; 
They  want  Mrs.  de  Koven  to  begin  her  book 
while  the  interest  is  alive." 

(Does  Mr.  Friend  know  how  many  people  I 
have  seen  in  Boston?) 


«02  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

"Oh,  yes.  Yes.  Thank  Mrs.  de  Koven  for 
seeing  Margery.  Mrs.  Vernon  should  look  over 
the  records.  Certain  spots  may  not  be  exactly 
what  she  wants.'' 

(Mr.  Friend  hears  Mrs.  Vernon's  daughter 
playing  on  the  harp  in  the  adjoining  room.) 
''Pathological  exploration  consists  in  playing 
on  chords  as  upon  a  harp,  playing  upon  chords 
which  vibrate  in  tune  with  our  thoughts." 

(Does  not  my  sister's  language  contain  good 
metaphor?) 

**The  style  is  that  of  the  controls.  Make  no 
mistake.  Get  this  right,  now,  right  now.  You, 
Mrs.  Vernon,  know  that  is  the  language  of  your 
controls.  Get  the  truth.  By  their  words  you 
shall  know  them.  Your  sister  is  a  wonderful 
communicator  and  the  deep  affection  between 
her  and  her  sister  makes  the  desire  to  com- 
municate." 

(Are  they  not  her  own  words?) 

**Yes,  they  are,  but  sometimes  altered  by  the 
central  control.  A  central  telephone  office,  and 
in  that  sits  a  scholar,  a  most  scholarly  man,  and 
he  it  is  who  directs.  To  him  come  others  who 
wish  to  conununicate.  They  impart  to  him  their 
own  metaphors,  which  when  good  he  sends  to 
the  medium,  and  when  inferior  he  transforms 
into  the  style  she  knows.    This  is  very  impor- 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  203 

tant.  Mrs.  Vernon  knows  them  by  their  lan- 
guage, which  is  elegant  and  pedantic." 

Mrs.  Vernon  then  explained  to  me  by  way  of 
illustration  of  Mr.  Friend  ^s  statement,  that  she 
knew  her  controls  by  their  language,  that  when, 
for  instance,  she  looked  out  of  the  window  when 
it  was  raining,  she  would  think,  ''It  is  a  rainy 
day."  If  she  hears  in  her  mind,  such  words  as 
**  Atmospheric  conditions  produce  a  preponder- 
ance of  moisture,"  she  knows  that  she  is  get- 
ting a  message,  that  her  controls  are  speaking 
to  her. 

My  own  statement,  based  on  more  than  a 
year's  regular  meetings  with  Mrs.  Vernon,  that 
her  mind  is  singularly  free  from  any  tendency 
to  elaboration  in  thought,  may  be  taken  on  my 
own  authority,  and  it  will  also  be  confirmed  by 
those  who  know  her.  Her  concepts  are  clear 
and  simple,  as  is  her  language  in  speaking  and 
in  writing.  Her  crystal  candor  is  one  of  the 
charms  of  her  character  and  a  most  favorable 
condition  for  the  transmission  of  the  messages 
which  she  receives.  No  clearer  or  more  sharply 
defined  differentiation  between  dissimilar  men- 
tal products  could  exist  than  that  which  char- 
acterizes Mrs.  Vernon's  individual  thoughts 
from  those  she  receives  from  her  controls.  By 
intention  she  refrains  from  reading  the  litera- 
ture of  Psychic  Phenomena,  and  in  her  daily 


204  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

life  of  constant  occupation  with  her  children, 
she  strictly  avoids  any  prolonged  conversation 
on  the  subject. 

She  has  marked  temperamental  talent,  ex- 
pressing itself  in  music  and  in  her  brilliant  in- 
tuitions. This  suggests  the  possession  of  that 
enlarged  subconsciousness  resident  in  the  psy- 
chic brain  ganglia  whose  corresponding  enlarge- 
ment, according  to  Mr.  Friend,  represents  the 
physical  cause  of  such  an  extension. 

Taking  up  Mr.  Friend 's  reference  to  my  sis- 
ter in  the  foregoing  messages,  I  asked  if  she 
would  be  permitted  to  continue  her  narrative. 

**Yes,  she  has  brought  it  up  to  date,  but  I 
wish  to  say  one  more  thing  about  the  central 
ofiSce.  There  sits  the  scholar  in  the  central  of- 
fice, always  there  at  his  desk.  Once  in  a  while 
he  will  accept  the  service  of  a  substitute,  but  he 
always  looks  over  what  has  been  done. ' ' 

(How  can  any  records  be  kept  of  these  com- 
munications?) 

*'Let  us  try  once  for  all  to  explain  that  there 
are  such  things  as  thought  formations  and  these 
persist  and  therefore  we  can  look  over  the  rec- 
ords. Into  the  central  office  come  the  communi- 
cators, those  who  understand  the  work  and  are 
interested  in  its  growth.  Acumen  and  effort 
and  the  result  is  assured. '  * 

(Mrs.  Vernon  saw  people  coming  and  going, 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  205 

a  head  officer  and  an  assistant.)  "Like  a  central 
office  with  different  people  coming  in  who  have 
messages  to  send.  Mrs.  de  Koven  will  say  to 
herself,  'How  beautiful  my  sister  looked  in  that 
blue  dress !  That  is  it.  The  mental  image  re- 
mains. Thoughts  and  aspirations  which  are 
laid  bare.'  " 

Nothing  of  all  the  astonishing  information 
which  I  have  received  from  these  transcenden- 
tal communications  was  more  impressive  to  me 
than  Mr.  Friend's  reference  to  my  thought  of 
my  sister  in  her  blue  dress.  It  was,  in  fact,  her 
image  in  the  dress  she  had  worn  just  before  she 
left  me  on  her  last  visit,  that  I  had  constantly 
brought  to  my  mind  since  her  death.  This 
image,  then,  Mr.  Friend,  whom  I  had  not  known 
in  life,  and  who  had  been  dead  these  five  years, 
had  seen  and  had  recalled  to  me,  as  an  example 
of  an  enduring  thought  form.  The  significance 
of  the  idea  that  we  may  and  do  put  forth 
thoughts  which  have  a  visible  form  is  illimit- 
able. In  the  interesting  records  of  the  auto- 
matic script,  regarding  the  chapel  at  Glaston- 
bury, the  monk  Johannes  says  that  he  reani- 
mates the  thought  forms  which  he  had  left  in 
the  places  he  had  inhabited.  So,  created  char- 
acters in  fiction  may  have  a  visible  existence  in 
the  cosmos.  Thought  forms  as  seen  by  clair- 
voyants have  color  and  their  own  special  sig- 


206  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

nificance.  An  image  when  simultaneously 
thought  of  was  actually  photographed  by  the 
combined  effort  of  two  psychics  (recorded  by 
Dr.  Funk). 

Evil  and  good  thoughts  are  recorded  on  the 
circumambient  ether  for  all  the  ethereal  inhab- 
itants to  read  at  their  will.  In  a  recent  book, 
** Letters  from  the  Other  Side,'*  a  communica- 
tor calling  himself  Philemon  thus  explains  the 
reanimation  of  his  remaining  thought  forms: 
"Where  I  have  lived  in  the  body,  spoken, 
thought  and  prayed,  I  have,  in  common  with  all 
living  beings,  left  images,  pictures,  that  may 
be  galvanized  into  the  semblance  of  life  when 
I  direct  my  thought  or  attention  to  the  old  per- 
sons and  places.  But  much  that  is  regarded  as 
coming  from  me  is  merely  the  cast-off  effete 
resultant  of  past  activities,  only  slightly  per- 
meated with  my  living,  vital,  ascended  self. 
Some  of  the  communications  received  are 
largely  due  to  past  associations  much  clogged 
and  hampered  by  self -directed  thought.  When 
writing  here  (that  is  with  this  particular  me- 
dium) Ijhis  objection  does  not  hold  good,  to  any- 
thing like  the  same  extent ;  the  quality  is  purer. ' ' 
In  the  light  of  this  enormous  extension  of  the 
agency  of  thought  forms  in  communications,  the 
importance  of  information  strictly  new,  or  re- 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  «07 

lating  to  conditions  in  the  other  world,  cannot 
be  over-estimated. 

At  the  sitting  of  March  the  6th,  following  the 
one  whose  messages  I  have  above  recorded,  Mr. 
Friend  announced  his  presence  immediately  by 
addressing  me  directly : 

''Good  morning,  Mrs.  de  Koven!  In  the  im- 
passe in  which  I  found  myself  after  death,  one 
gleam  of  light  shed  its  radiance  and  that  was 
caused  by  the  electric  rays  emanating  from  the 
psychic  organism  of  so-called  living  mediums. 
This  emanation  vibrates  in  harmony  with 
rhythmical  currents  which  bear  it  through  the 
ether.  My  wife's  'light'  ditfers  from  Mrs. 
Vernon's  only  in  degree,  as  their  planes  or  de- 
velopment correspond  somewhat.  She  is  less 
psychically  developed. ' ' 

(Have  you  communicated  with  her  directly?) 

"Yes,  but  she  has  not  worked  over  it,  com- 
munications not  finished.  This  is  important 
for  Mrs.  de  Koven  to  know.  Science  should 
attack  the  problem  from  the  pathological  stand- 
point, but  eliminating  the  popular  idea  of  per- 
version. The  sensitiveness  may  be  induced  by 
any  excess  of  emotion  such  as  grief,  joy,  love, 
all  of  these.  But  the  sensitiveness  developed  by 
these  emotions  should  be  under  good  control. 
After  great  sorrow,  one  may  emerge  in  a  psy- 
chic condition,  but  this  is  useful  only  when  the 


208  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ego  is  discarded  and  the  emotion  held  well  in 
hand.  Any  such  emotion  creates  vibrations  in 
the  ganglia.  The  force  so  created  may  be  di- 
rected in  another  channel.  This  condition  may 
be  passed  down  and  children  of  psychics  may  be 
psychic. '  * 

Mrs.  Vernon  here  referred  to  the  prenatal 
history  which  induced  this  quality  in  herself 
and  in  others  of  her  family. 

' '  Yes,  they  have  got  it.  Back  somewhere,  you 
will  always  find  that  there  has  been  an  excess 
of  some  kind  of  emotion.  "With  reference  to 
static  currents — ^they  are  like  subdivisions  of  a 
main  current  and  we  suffer  from  them  too. 
They  disperse  or  deflect  our  cablegrams  and 
are  almost  entirely  atmospheric,  not  depending 
upon  the  condition  of  the  medium." 

Mrs.  Vernon  here  remarked  that  on  Fridays, 
which  have  this  winter  often  been  rainy,  she 
has  not  been  able  to  get  good  currents,  which 
her  Friday  sitter  has  observed. 

**When  there  is  almost  complete  possession, 
as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Ticknor,  the  effect  of  mois- 
ture is  less,  the  dijBiculty  is  less  apparent.  But 
Mrs.  Vernon  is  like  a  tightly  strung  violin.  We 
pick  on  these  strings.  Mr.  Ticknor  and  Mrs. 
Vernon  are  as  unlike  as  the  poles.  He  does  not 
have  these  difficulties." 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  «09 

("Was  Mr.  Friend  there  last  Saturday  night 
at  the  meeting  of  the  ''Investigators"?) 

* '  Yes.    I  am  apt  to  accompany  this  medium. '  * 

(Who  was  Col.  Lee?) 

' '  Col.  Lee  depends  for  his  mental  sustenance 
upon  his  reading  the  lives  of  various  statesmen 
such  as  Lincoln,  and  also  some  personal  eon- 
tact  with  Eappallier  (?)." 

(What  did  he  do  in  his  life?) 

*'He  had  no  earthly  fame,  no  military  fame, 
although  he  aspired  thereto,  but  won  some  lau- 
rels as  a  speaker." 

Mrs.  Vernon  announced  at  this  point  that  she 
saw  Col.  Lee  and,  having  remarked  upon  his 
very  distinctly  northern  accent  in  his  delivery 
of  his  discourse  at  the  meeting  of  March  the 
1st,  asked  him  how  he  lost  his  Southern  accent. 

Col.  Lee :  ''That  accent  doesn't  come  through 
very  well,  but  near  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  it 
is  not  so  pronounced." 

Mr.  Friend :  "  He  is  an  adept  at  trance,  has 
much  power." 

An  illustration  of  Col.  Lee's  power  to  en- 
trance the  medium  was  then  and  there  provided, 
for  Mrs.  Vernon  nearly  went  under  his  control. 
She  said  that  she  felt  exceedingly  sleepy  and 
that  her  hands  and  feet  felt  "inert";  she  re- 
sisted the  influence,  however,  very  strongly  and 
the  sensation  passed. 


210  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Col.  Lee :  "I  got  a  furlough  and  on  that  fur- 
lough I  proceeded  to  die.'* 

Mr.  Friend :  *  *  Col.  Lee  is  a  kind  and  simple- 
hearted  southern  gentleman,  has  tremendous 
power,  which  he  uses  for  good.  Lost  his  accent, 
as  he  did  not  come  from  very  far  South,  away 
from  home  a  good  deal. ' ' 

Mrs.  Vernon  said  that  she  was  at  this  point 
conscious  of  a  stop  in  the  proceedings,  the 
group  of  her  controls  apparently  taking  charge, 
and  preventing  Col.  Lee  from  going  on  with  his. 
messages,  and  at  the  same  time  she  heard  the 
name  of  my  sister,  as  if  she  had  heen  waiting 
for  her  turn  to  communicate. 

Mr.  Friend:  *'Col.  Lee  is  a  delightful  old 
soul,  but  does  not  figure  on  our  program.*' 
(Laughing  good-naturedly.) 

Then  my  sister  appeared  and  sent  messages 
which  have  been  already  recorded. 

At  the  next  sitting,  I  asked  Mr.  Friend  if  Mr. 
Ticknor  was  communicated  with  directly,  with- 
out the  aid  of  controls. 

*  *  Mr.  Ticknor 's  condition  corresponds  to  that 
of  the  wireless  instrument  which  is  operated  by 
experienced  and  trained  experts  in  the  subject. 
Therefore  he  can  be  said  to  come  in  direct  con- 
tact without  the  aid  of  controls.  But  all  who 
communicate  with  Mr.  Ticknor  must  have  a  cer- 
tain knowledge  of  the  methods  else  they  would 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  211 

be  obliged  to  use  a  control.  These  experienced 
spirits  control  conditions,  the  wires  and  so 
forth,  as  much  as  the  regularly  attending  con- 
trols, but  these  others,  through  their  knowledge 
of  the  vibrations  and  methods,  can  communi- 
cate with  Mr.  Ticknor." 

(Is  Mr.  Friend  interested  in  our  present 
plans  for  the  pursuit  of  Psychic  Research?) 

"Franklin's  'Almanac'  would  be  a  good 
sample  to  go  by." 

This  refers  to  a  proposed  pamphlet  to  record 
"The  Ticknor  Seances,"  which  had  been  under 
discussion. 

"Be  terse  and  brief,  no  long-involved  sen- 
tences. Very  anxious  about  this,  not  verbose 
sentences,  clear  free  style,  short  sentences." 

(Are  fabrics  such  as  tapestries  and  laces  pro- 
cured by  the  inexpert  from  those  who  know 
how  to  make  them?  Do  they  purchase  them 
from  shops,  for  instance,  to  furnish  their 
abodes?) 

"The  only  currency  is  an  interchange  of  fa- 
vors, brought  about  by  a  desire  to  be  courteous 
to  each  other." 

(If  I,  for  instance,  should  wish  to  surround 
myself  with  lovely  things,  would  any  spirit 
friends  supply  me  with  them?) 

"If  a  genuine  desire  to  please  you  exists  on 
the  part  of  those  who  have  the  power  to  make 


212  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

these  things.  Hence  the  Bible  expression. 
'Lay  np  for  yourselves  treasure  in  Heaven.* 
If  you  want  to  do  for  people,  they  will  want  to 
do  for  you. '  * 

(Does  the  ethereal  body  possess  organs?) 
**Not  in  the  last  analysis.    A  quoi  hon?  as 
the  French  say.    There  is  no  physical  function- 
ing.'' 

(How  are  you  known  to  each  other?  What 
appearance  do  you  assume  to  each  other?) 

*' Women  adopt  the  outline  of  the  female 
form,  minus  the  furbelows  of  fashion.  Men  re- 
tain the  masculine  representation,  but  envelop 
themselves  ad  libitum.  (Shows  a  collection  of 
beautiful  stuffs  of  many  colors.)  They  can 
wear  anything  they  prefer,  can  use  beautiful 
colors  and  flowing  vestments;  can  have  their 
choice — ^no  restriction  as  to  price.  Greece,  with 
her  classic  garments,  more  clearly  interpreted 
our  costumes  than  any  other  nation." 

(Is  there  animal  life  in  the  ethereal  world?) 
**  Anything  evolved  enough  to  possess  the 
semblance  of  a  soul  nas  its  counterpart  here. 
The  differentiation  is  comparatively  subtle  be- 
tween animation,  automatic  animation,  and  en- 
teric vitality.  Anything  which  has  enteric  vital- 
ity is  represented  in  the  ethereal  world.  The 
soul  of  a  jellyfish  is  not  evolved  enough.  When 
evolved  enough  it  gets  its  enteric  vitality." 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  213 

(What  is  the  difference  between  objects  made 
by  the  action  of  mind  alone  and  those  made  of 
ether?) 

**  Preconceived  ideas  create  images,  images 
create  objects,  objects  are  matter.  Now  reverse 
it.  Matter  was  embryo,  embryo  was  thought, 
thought  was  a  mental  projection,  therefore  the 
core  of  all  things  lies  in  the  mind.'* 

(When  my  sister  said  that  Mahomet  makes 
the  mountain  come  to  him,  what  did  she  mean? 
Are  the  mountains  merely  mental  images?  Are 
all  landscapes  merely  mental?    A.  de  K.) 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard,  *'Let  us  proceed  to  the 
mountains.  We  have  arrived.  What  brought 
us?  Not  alone  the  vehicle  of  transportation. 
What  propelled  the  vehicle  of  transportation? 
The  will  or  desire  to  go,  formulated  in  our 
brains.  Everything  is  the  product  of  our  men- 
tal machinery.  Where  there  is  no  difficulty  in 
transportation,  one  is  where  one  wants  to  be. 
Terrestrial  conditions  necessitate  manipulation 
of  matter,  whereas  so-called  celestial  ones  re- 
quire only  mental  operation  such  as  your  ret- 
inal hallucinations.  When  Mahomet  came  to 
the  mountain,  it  originates  right  here."  (Some 
one  pointing  to  his  forehead.) 

(What  objects  are  made  of  ether  and  what 
are  purely  mental?) 

* '  You  make  a  chair  of  ether  by  mental  force.  * ' 


1814  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

(But  there  must  be  some  difference  between 
the  purely  mental  projections  and  objects  such 
as  chairs?    A.  de  K.) 

**The  process  is  the  same." 

(But  you  have  told  us  that  there  was  a  ma- 
chine by  which  constructional  vibrations  were 
used  to  form  a  sort  of  collection  of  ether,  which 
was  used  to  make  houses  and  objects  such  as 
tables,  chairs,  flowers  and  so  forth.  We  are 
told  also  of  purely  mental  vibrations  such  as 
take  place  in  thought  transference.) 

*'Mrs.  de  Koven  is  right.  There  is  a  differ- 
ence. The  differentiation  lies  in  the  adaptabil- 
ity of  the  thing  desired,  or  the  use  to  which  it  is 
put.  One  sojourns  in  the  mountains,  but  one 
sits  on  a  chair.  Therefore  the  method  of  pro- 
duction varies  somewhat  as  with  you.  It  is  all 
manipulation  of  the  ether  in  a  way,  but  objects 
of  virtu  require  what  you  would  call  a  different 
kind  of  conjuring  from  that  of  transportation. 
There  is  a  classification,  headings  under  which 
these  different  methods  of  projection  are  com- 
prised. When  you  want  to  travel  there  is  a 
method  of  projecting  yourself  through  space. 
When  you  desire  to  create,  you  concentrate,  as 
you  do  on  your  hands  when  you  fabricate  on 
earth.  Transposition  of  phrase,  the  same 
whether  Mahomet  came  to  the  mountain  or  the 
mountain  came  to  him.    Not  so  difficult  to  un- 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  215 

derstand  if  you  eliminate  matter  as  you  know 
it  on  earth." 

In  this  connection  Col.  Lee's  statements  re- 
garding the  same  subject  are  interesting.  I 
had  asked  him  whether  the  ethereal  world  was 
entirely  one  of  ideals  or  ether  manipulated  by 
mind. 

''The  latter,  Madame,"  he  replied,  "obvious- 
ly so." 

Pursuing  my  questions,  I  asked  if  there  were 
houses  made  by  the  spirits  in  which  the  lesser 
spirits  dwelt.    To  this  he  answered: 

"Yes,  we  care  for  our  own.  We  have  cities 
in  our  realm  of  life,  infinitely  fairer  than  yours 
and  of  necessity." 

"Who  makes  the  landscapes,"  I  asked  him. 

*  *  The  Divine  Father  makes  them ;  that  Spirit 
real,  yet  intangible,  a  part  of  all  that  is  and 
running  through  all  that  doth  exist.  As  far 
as  perfecting  his  handiwork,  we  in  our  world 
are  able  in  some  particulars  so  to  do,  as  indeed 
in  your  world  the  natural  resources  are  beauti- 
fied and  perfected  under  a  professional  manipu- 
lation." 

To  my  question  if  individual  spirits  were 
able  to  project  landscapes,  he  replied: 

"Yes,  for  we  live  in  a  world  of  projection,  as 
I  told  you  a  few  moments  ago ;  your  life  in  this 
old  world  of  labor,  tears  and  trade  is  merely  a 


«16  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

projection  of  another  life,  which  you  really  en- 
joy in  another  and  fairer  realm." 

In  the  discourse  of  March  the  1st,  from 
which  these  quotations  are  made.  Col.  Lee 
stated  that  the  **  subliminal  ego  which  has  for 
centuries  been  passing  through  a  state  or  states 
of  evolution  becomes  'centered'  until  it  is  able 
to  become  a  part  of  human  life.  And  so  I  say 
that  you  do  not  actually  live  in  this  world,  for 
your  spirit  certainly  cannot  live  in  a  material 
world,  but  must  exist  in  another  dimension  of 
life  at  all  times.  The  projection  of  life  which 
you  consider  your  real  being  is  not  really  that, 
remember,  but  merely  a  waking  dream,  given 
to  you  to  perfect  those  senses  most  necessary 
to  your  development." 

Here  then  is  an  amplification  of  my  sister's 
statement  that  the  subconscious  or  subliminal 
self  is  the  real  and  enduring  part  of  us,  and  an 
illuminating  extension  of  our  comprehension  of 
the  character  of  that  self  and  of  its  continuous 
connection  with  the  life  eternal. 

In  the  discourse  delivered  on  the  5th  of  April 
a  question  was  answered  by  Col.  Lee  as  to  the 
proximity  of  our  world  to  theirs. 

"This  question  has  been  asked  before  and 
as  near  as  I  am  able  to  determine  may  well  be 
answered  by  saying  that  our  world  exists  within 
yours.    Remember  we  live  in  the  fourth  dimen- 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  217 

sion  of  existence,  you  in  the  third.  You  can 
pass  through  our  buildings,  they  are  nothing  to 
you.  They  mean  nothing  in  so  far  as  physical 
touch  or  feeling  is  concerned.  In  this  way  your 
buildings  appear  as  naught  to  us.  Our  build- 
ings on  the  other  hand  are  real  and  tangible  to 
us,  as  yours  are  to  you." 

At  the  sitting  of  the  15th  of  April  I  asked  Mr. 
Friend  if  there  were  ethereal  houses  near  us 
and  if  we  could  walk  through  them. 

*  *  There  are  realms  within  realms  like  the  en- 
folding shell  of  a  snail  and  as  apparently  unre- 
lated as  the  quality  of  the  meat  is  to  the  shell. 
The  meat  of  the  snail  represents  the  terrestrial 
existence,  which  is  perishable  and  subject  to  de- 
cay. The  shell  possesses  the  enduring  qualities 
of  the  ethereal  existence,  of  course  minus  the 
qualities  pertaining  to  the  ether  or  air.  For  those 
who  desire  them,  houses  are  provided,  but  have 
no  permanency  as  with  you,  unless  the  demand 
or  desire  persists.  The  locality  of  their  world 
envelops  yours,  as  the  shell  envelops  the  meat, 
and  they  could  without  any  confusion  or  ap- 
parent incongruity  transform  your  dwellings 
according  to  their  needs,  without  the  formality 
of  asking  permission.  No  conflict  between  our 
houses  and  yours.  We  can  erect  a  house  right 
here  if  we  want  to.    We  do  not  see  this  house. 


218  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

if  we  do  not  wish  to.  As  the  soul  pervades  the 
body  so  does  our  ethereal  existence  envelop  and 
pervade  yours.  The  workings  of  nature  you 
can  follow  to  their  source  by  means  of  com- 
parisons. Take  body  and  soul,  take  ethereal 
house,  take  material  house.  If  we  choose  to 
erect  a  house  on  your  sidewalk  you  do  walk 
through  this  house  without  seeing  it." 

(Do  these  houses  belong  to  the  first  stage  of 
development?) 

*'They  belong  to  all  stages  of  development, 
since  what  is  the  prerogative  of  the  lower  order 
of  spirits  is  also  the  prerogative  of  the  highly 
developed  ones  if  they  wish  to  use  it.  The 
higher  privileges  belong  to  the  higher  order, 
but  there  are  no  privileges  which  the  higher 
order  cannot  have.'* 

At  the  next  sitting  I  continued  my  questions 
regarding  the  interpenetration  of  our  world 
with  the  ethereal  world. 

Mr.  Friend  (showing  a  vision  of  a  beautiful 
scene  of  mountains  and  a  lake  at  sunset) :  **The 
inhabitants  are  near  this  beautiful  scene.  We 
can  come  down  if  we  like  and  communicate  with 
the  inhabitants,  or  enjoy  the  landscape  at  close 
range  if  we  desire.  We  are  a  good  deal  like 
aerial  observers  who  soar  about  enjoying  the 
panorama  either  from  a  height  or  from  a  land- 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  219 

ing  place.  But  like  the  aerial  observers  being 
unlike  the  inhabitants  until  they  discard  their 
paraphernalia. ' ' 

(Where  does  your  ethereal  world  begin?) 
''According  to  development  or  desire.  Either 
close  to  the  earth  or  myriads  of  miles  away. 
Earthbound  spirits  reside  in  a  cloudy  ethereal 
substance  resembling  the  exudations  from  a 
sweating  horse,  unable  on  account  of  its  pol- 
luted condition  to  rise  very  high.  Other  souls 
more  developed  inhabit  a  pure  grade  of  ether 
qualified  by  its  buoyancy  to  develop  into  greater 
heights  of  eternity. ' ' 

•  •••••• 

At  the  sitting  of  May  the  1st,  I  asked  about 
the  exact  nature  of  telepathic  messages,  for  the 
reason  that  I  had  seen  a  long  communication 
from  Mr.  Myers  in  the  Journal  of  the  American 
Society  for  Psychical  Research,  in  which  he  had 
stated  that  long-distance  messages  were  carried 
to  psychics  by  spirit  messengers. 

Mr.  Friend :  ' '  Two  people  tossing  a  ball,  ball 
goes  through  the  air ;  that  is  what  thought  does. 
The  passage  of  the  ball  or  thought  through  the 
air  is  called  telepathy!" 

(Does  thought  proceed  through  waves?) 

*' Thought  is  borne  on  waves.  The  dynamos 
are  in  the  brains  of  the  senders.  Telepathy 
varies,  voluntary  and  involuntary,  directed  or 


220  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

aimless.  Projected  towards  an  object  or 
ejected  into  space,  according  to  the  desire  of  the 
individual.  In  other  words,  you  may  fasten 
your  thoughts  with  a  purpose  or  eject  them  into 
space  without  any  particular  concentration." 

(Are  these  waves  of  ether?) 

**They  agitate  the  ether.  These  waves  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  electricity,  coming  from 
these  mental  dynamos.  They  agitate  the  ether. ' ' 

(Are  distant  messages  brought  by  spirits?) 

**  Those  which  psychics  receive  usually  are 
brought  by  spirits.  Those  which  others  receive 
may  be  tinged  with  transcendental  nuances. ' ' 

(How  are  very  distant  messages  from  one 
continent  to  another  carried?) 

**  Superimposed  electrical  currents  upon  ethe- 
real substance.  An  electrical  current  blended 
with  matter.  A  live  wire  insulated  by  ethereal 
matter.  Otherwise  the  wire  would  burn  out. 
Brains,  which  are  the  dynamos,  send  out  the 
messages.*' 

I  then  related  that  on  one  occasion  in  London 
I  was  suddenly  made  aware  that  I  should  that 
evening  see  a  friend  with  whom  I  had  had  no 
conununication  for  four  years.  I  did  see 
the  friend,  and  have  always  been  curious  to 
understand  the  possibility  of  prophecy  as  illus- 
trated by  the  incident. 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  221 

(How  was  this  message  given,  was  it  by  a 
spirit!) 

' '  Not  necessarily.  *  * 

(Who  gave  me  the  message?) 

*' There  is  a  differentiation  between  telepathy 
and  transcendental  communication.  Telepathic 
explosions  of  the  description  to  which  Mrs.  de 
Koven  has  just  referred,  need  not  savor  of  the 
mesmerical  variety. ' ' 

Mrs.  Vernon  remarked  at  this  point  that  Mr. 
Friend  probably  meant  by  his  use  of  the  word 
** mesmerical,"  that  the  controls  of  a  medium 
use  a  certain  sort  of  ** mesmerical"  or  ''mag- 
netic" power,  when  in  the  act  of  communicating. 

**We  do  mesmerize  the  medium  to  a  certain 
extent.  The  friend  caught  the  magnetic  ema- 
nation from  Mrs.  de  Koven 's  personality.  This 
form  of  communication  does  not  savor  of  the 
messages  borne  by  spirits.  With  Mrs.  de 
Koven  these  emanations  had  blended  before. 
When  Mrs.  de  Koven  was  in  London  the  impact 
of  those  emanations  took  place — renewed." 

(Why  did  that  impact  announce  that  I  should 
see  this  friend?) 

*'To  that  extent  coming  events  cast  their 
shadows  before.    She  caught  the  embryo." 

Here,  then,  is  an  explanation,  bearing  upon 
the  already  stated  presence  of  electrical  cur- 
rents surrounding  the  earth,  of  the  numberless 


222  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

announcements  of  letters  or  of  meetings  with 
friends,  which  are  of  ahnost  universal  experi- 
ence. 

Our  own  electrical  or  magnetic  emanations 
are  sent  out  apparently  into  the  ether,  coming 
in  contact  with  those  of  the  friends  who  are  re- 
lated closely  to  us,  and  registering  prophetic 
messages  upon  our  nerve  wires. 

The  next  question  which  I  asked  Mr.  Friend 
was  as  to  how  spirits  were  able  to  rap. 

"Physical  phenomena  are  the  combination  of 
the  electrical  emanations  from  certain  human 
or  animal  organisms,  acting  upon  some  resonant 
substance  such  as  wood.  It  has  to  be  wood  or 
glass,  some  resonant  substance.'* 

(When  I  heard  the  raps  two  weeks  ago, 
while  Mrs.  Horton  was  with  me,  was  she  the 
medium!) 

**Mrs.  de  Koven  can  get  them  equally  well." 

(Does  the  magnetism  combine  with  the  ether 
in  the  room  to  make  the  rod  which  the  spirits 
use!) 

**Yes.  An  implement,  not  necessarily  in  the 
form  of  a  rod.  Kod  is  a  good  term,  a  psychic 
rod.  It  is  important  to  recognize  two  forms 
of  telepathy.  All  telepathy  is  not  borne  by 
spirits.  Combination  of  magnetic  emanations, 
which  result  in  communication." 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  223 

(Why  do  not  Mr.  Myers  and  Dr.  Hodgson 
communicate  with  us?) 

**We  are  all  here  but  because  Mr.  Friend 
knew  Mrs.  Vernon,  we  allow  him  to  speak  for 
us." 

Then  taking  up  the  subject  of  materializa- 
tion, lately  discussed  in  the  Hibbert  Journal, 
following  Dr.  Geley's  experiments  I  asked  if 
materializations  were  exudations  from  the  body 
of  a  medium. 

**Not  alone.  Materialization  is  a  process  in- 
volving the  combination  of  unseen  magnetic 
forces,  visualizing  the  exudation  of  the  me- 
dium." 

(Are  there  materialized  spirits?) 

"They  are  like  the  shell  of  a  locust,  manipu- 
lated temporarily  and  enabled  to  perform  cer- 
tain actions  resembling  the  activities  of  the  de- 
parted one.    Shell  automatically  moved." 

(Does  the  spirit  of  the  departed  one  inhabit 
this  shell?) 

''Sometimes  it  does,  and  makes  use  of  the 
shell,  as  you  would  of  an  automaton,  but  it 
lacks  the  physical  sensations  which  you  have." 

Between  the  date  of  this  message  (April  the 
15th)  and  June  the  28th,  when  I  saw  Mrs.  Ver- 
non at  Manchester,  I  had  given  some  considera- 
tion to  the  subject  of  materialization,  in  con- 


224  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

nection  with  its  bearing  upon  the  construction 
of  the  ethereal  world.  My  conjectures  were 
not  based  upon  any  opinions  other  than  my  own. 
The  answers  to  my  questions  at  this  last  sit- 
ting furnished  information  exterior  to  my  own 
thoughts,  but  in  general  they  confirm  my  de- 
ductions. 

(Is  the  exuded  substance  from  the  medium  a 
form  of  ether?— A.  de  K.) 

"Ethereal  promulgations  and  exudations  de- 
pend upon  the  dispensation  or  diffusion  of  mag- 
netic force  ill  connection  with  elemental  fluidic 
matter." 

(Is  the  fluidic  matter  the  same  as  the  ether 
of  the  universe?) 

''Only  to  the  extent  that  they  commingle. 
The  exudations  and  the  ethereal  matter  do 
mingle,  but  they  are  not  the  same." 

(Is  there  a  single  material  substance  in  the 
universe?) 

"Human  beings  are  all  flesh  and  blood  but 
they  are  not  the  same. ' ' 

(The  conclusion  of  Dr.  Geley  is  that  there  is 
a  single  primordial  substance  in  normal  and 
supernormal  physiology.) 

"We  would  rather  say  there  are  two,  like 
body  and  soul.  Like  substance  and  vitalizer. 
When  the  vitalizer  leaves  it  the  substance  dis- 
integrates, like  a  decaying  body." 


MR.  EDWIN  FRIEND  226 

(Is  there  one  substance  in  the  last  analysis?) 

Edwin  Friend:  **A  factory,  rags  that  come 
out  paper,  fat  that  comes  out  soap.  Very  differ- 
ent, altered,  but  really  the  same  substance." 

(Is  the  formula  of  the  creative  process  in  the 
ethereal  world  like  that  of  the  materialization 
experiments'?) 

"Yes,  that  is  the  formula  for  physical  demon- 
stration.*' 

(Is  this  the  formula  for  the  creation  of  ob- 
jects in  the  ethereal  world?) 

**Yes,  that  is  the  formula  plus  the  individ- 
ual.»' 

(I  am  trying  to  think  that  the  threads  and 
other  forms,  although  varying  in  their  mani- 
festation, are  all  modifications  or  condensations 
of  one  primordial  substance.) 

**Yes,  over  here  we  manipulate  first  hand. 
There  it  is  second  hand,  or  through  the  body 
of  the  medium. '  * 

(Are  electrons  modified  ether?) 

"Not  modified;  vitalized  or  electrified  ether, 
reenforced  by  electricity." 

(Ether  then  is  a  form  of  matter  extending 
through  the  universe?) 

"Pervading,  penetrating,  enveloping  and  fi- 
nally taking  form.  Thin  air,  small  particles 
forming,  whirling  about,  finally  taking  form.  I 
want  to  support  the  theory  of  molecular  attrao- 


226  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

tion,  up  to  a  certain  point.  An  old-fashioned 
theory.  Momentum  does  not  do  it  alone.  Laws 
of  gravitation  and  momentum  provide  the  im- 
pact but  not  the  animation.  Molecules  could 
remain  passive,  after  the  impact,  without  the 
electrical  sparks.*' 


CHAPTER  Vni 
Ou)  Acquaintances 

THE  several  members  of  my  husband *s  fam- 
ily who  have  communicated  with  me 
through  Mrs.  Vernon  have  sent  extremely  char- 
acteristic messages.  On  October  the  1st,  1918, 
his  father,  the  Rev.  Henry  de  Koven,  announced 
his  presence  by  a  gesture  of  blessing,  the  same 
gesture  with  which  he  had  bade  me  ''Farewell" 
when  I  saw  him  for  the  last  time  in  the  villa 
in  Florence  where  my  husband  and  I  had  spent 
the  first  month  of  our  marriage. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  ''Reggie  and  Anna'*  and 
said,  "This  is  not  your  sister;  it  is  an  older 
communicator. ' ' 

(Is  it  my  father?) 

Mrs.  Vernon  said,  *'No,  but  I  hear  the  word 
*  Father.'  " 

Recalling  then  this  gesture  of  blessing,  I 
asked  if  it  could  be  my  father-in-law. 

"Outskirts  of  a  small  town,  practically  un- 
known. Fastened  in  that  town  therefore  un- 
known. 

227 


228  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

** Proofs :  (Shows  a  hand  clasping  the  throat.) 
E — d  revitalized.** 

I  was  convinced  after  this  communication 
that  it  was  my  father-in-law,  for  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  small  town  and  the  statement  that 
some  one  living  there  had  been  ''practically 
unknown"  could  in  my  opinion  concern  only 
my  brother-in-law,  Capt.  de  Koven,  who  had  for 
many  years  lived  in  Hove  near  Brighton,  in 
declining  health  and  seeing  very  few  people  ex- 
cept the  members  of  his  family. 

(Have  you  seen  my  father?) 

''Hunted  me  up.  He  is  more  forcible  than 
I  am ;  more  likely  to  hunt  me  up  than  I  to  hunt 
him  up.  I  was  inclined  to  have  things  done 
for  me.    He  was  more  executive." 

(What  have  you  and  Uncle  James  done  in  the 
other  world?) 

"James  has  the  fulfillment  of  his  heart's  de- 
sire. He  has  cut  the  bonds  which  held  him  to 
the  earth.  James  evolves,  supplants  inferior 
ideas  by  suggestions.  James  from  his  superior 
sphere  can  look  down  and  can  see  spirits  strug- 
gling with  sordid  ideas  and  dispels  them  or 
supplants  them  with  higher  thoughts  by  the 
magnetism  of  his  spirituality.  James  is  like  a 
dynamo.  Myriads  of  undeveloped  souls  have 
responded  to  James'  vibrations." 

(What  is  it  like  over  there?) 


OLD  ACQUAINTANCES  229 

"The  best  description  you  can  give  is  that 
they  try  to  raise  undeveloped  souls  most  of  the 
time.  Musicians  have  their  music,  painters 
have  their  colors,  athletes  have  their  games, 
but  the  better  part  of  the  time  is  used  in  this 
uplift  work. '  * 

(Is  that  world  clear  to  you  as  this  is  to  us?) 

"As  a  superfluity  of  resonance  reveals  the 
limitations  of  your  aural  powers,  so  the  com- 
plexities presented  to  the  vision  would  over- 
tax the  perceptivity  were  it  not  for  the  elasti- 
city of  the  soul." 

To  those  who  can  remember  the  gentle  and 
extremely  distinguished  Dr.  Henry  de  Koven 
and  his  more  famous  brother,  Dr.  James,  or 
have  heard  of  the  latter 's  eloquence,  of  his 
compelling  magnetism,  of  his  unrivaled  power 
of  influencing  the  pupils  in  Racine  College,  of 
which  he  was  the  founder,  these  communica- 
tions will  furnish  convincing  examples  of  that 
dramatic  verity  which  is  so  large  a  part  of  the 
proof  of  survival.  The  gesture  of  a  hand  clasp- 
ing the  throat,  communicated  at  the  same  time 
as  the  word  "Proofs,"  indicates  that  Dr.  de 
Koven 's  knowledge  of  my  brother-in-law's  fatal 
malady  of  the  throat  was  given  as  a  "proof." 
The  remark  about  the  "revitalization"  of  his 
other  son,  after  a  long  illness,  is  in  natural 
proximity  to  his  reference  to  the  approaching 


230  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

death  of  the  younger.  A  characteristic  exam- 
ple of  his  distinguished  vocabulary  is  found  in 
his  statement  about  the  complexities  presented 
to  the  vision  of  discarnate  souls.  This  is  the 
only  communication  received  by  me  which  re- 
fers to  the  elasticity  of  the  soul  and  its  resulting 
ability  to  perceive  the  multiplicity  of  projected 
images  in  the  ethereal  world. 

On  December  the  3rd,  after  the  death  of  my 
brother-in-law,  Captain  de  Koven,  an  elder 
brother,  LeEoy,  who  died  over  twenty-five  years 
ago,  appeared.  Kindly,  a  little  curt  in  his 
humor,  and  very  popular  in  the  world  of  Flor- 
ence where  he  lived  for  many  years,  he  reap- 
pears in  this  conununication  precisely  as  I  re- 
member him  in  life. 

He  was  interested  in  the  establishment  of  a 
model  dairy  farm  for  supplying  pure  milk  to 
the  Florentines  at  the  time  of  his  death.  His 
occupation  of  supplying  food  to  those  lately 
dead  seems  to  conform  to  his  earthly  trends, 
as  my  sister  has  so  often  said  is  the  rule  in 
our  continuing  lives  in  the  other  world. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  **Franzipanni,  Italy — 
some  one  in  the  entourage  of  diplomatic  cir- 
cles. ' ' 

(Is  this  LeRoy,  for  if  so  I  am  glad  to  hear 
from  him.    A.  de  K.) 


OLD  ACQUAINTANCES  231 

**  Placed  by  the  sea,  he  was  anchored  there 
like  a  ship — with  this  result." 

(Recognizing  the  reference  to  Captain  de 
Koven's  residence  in  Hove  near  the  sea,  I 
asked  again  if  this  was  not  LeRoy.) 

''Anna  has  guessed  it." 

(Are  you  busy  over  there?) 

''Busy?  Yes.  Lots  of  fun  after  one  gets 
acclimated." 

(Have  you  met  Bertie?    Is  he  awake  yet?) 

"Bertie  is  exhaling  his  superfluous  fiber,  and 
retaining  in  his  system  the  effusion  I  offered 
him.  A  transformation  accompanying  disso- 
lution. (Laughs.)  The  Red  Cross  isn't  in  it 
with  us.  (Vision  of  people  standing  around 
ready  to  administer  the  necessary  nutriment.) 
Earthly  trends  are  indicative  of  celestial  pur- 
suits. (Shows  a  vision  of  Reggie  and  himself 
together.  Pats  Reggie's  shoulder.)  Fulfill- 
ment came  with  opportunity.  Reggie  had  the 
opportunity,  then  the  fulfillment  came." 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  Alice,  LeRoy 's  wife: 
"Tell  Anna  that  we  rest  in  peace  amiably  to- 
gether, the  family,  and  I  really  enjoy  myself." 

(Hasn't  Reggie's  mother  been  proud  of  what 
he  has  done  in  music?) 

LeRoy:  "We  consider  Reggie's  accomplish- 
ments stupendous  ( I)  and  rejoice  at  the  im- 
provement in  his  health.    Mother  relates  how 


232  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Reggie  vanquished  objections  and  sowed  the 
seeds  of  his  original  musical  accomplishments.  * ' 

The  preference  of  the  members  of  the  de 
Koven  family  for  each  other's  society,  to  the 
exclusion  of  outside  friends  or  acquaintances, 
seem  to  continue  in  the  other  world,  to  their 
mutual  satisfaction. 

Mrs.  de  Koven 's  reference  to  my  husband's 
"vanquishing  of  objections"  concerns  his  per- 
sistence in  pursuing  his  musical  studies  in  spite 
of  his  father's  opposition  to  the  adoption  of  a 
musical  career. 

The  loyalty  of  this  family  to  each  other  was 
curiously  shown  by  the  appearance  of  LeEoy, 
on  the  occasion  of  my  last  meeting  with  Mrs. 
Vernon  at  Manchester.  Shortly  before  this 
meeting  I  had  received,  through  the  ouija 
board,  very  disquieting  messages  from  very 
powerful  mischievous  spirits,  who  moved  the 
board  with  such  unexampled  force  that  I  could 
with  difficulty  control  it.  The  messages  con- 
cerned my  husband's  health  and  purported  to 
come  from  his  mother. 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard :  *  *  Florence — a,  sudden  de- 
parture." 

I  remarked  that  this  must  be  LeEoy  who  had 
died  very  suddenly  in  Florence.  I  also  ob- 
served that  I  thought  that  he  had  probably 
come  to  reassure  me  about  my  husband. 


OLD  ACQUAINTANCES  233 

**You  have  hit  it.  That  is  why  I  came,  one 
good  turn  deserves  another,*' 

(I  don't  think  that  I  ever  did  much  for  you, 
dear  LeRoy.) 

**You  have  helped  us  all,  all  the  de  Koven 
family,  and  one  good  turn  deserves  another. 
I  thought  it  was  better  form  to  come  than 
Bertie.    So  I  came." 

(Was  it  your  mother  who  warned  me?) 

"We  saw  your  alarm.  It  was  mischief- 
makers  who  got  in." 

(Who  were  they?) 

**I  do  not  know.  I  will  explain  about  the 
ouija  board.  When  Anna  looks  at  Mrs.  Vernon 
through  her  reading  glasses  she  does  not  see 
her  face  plainly,  does  she  ?  It  is  like  that,  con- 
fused, inaccurate.  It  is  as  if  you  were  trying 
to  look  at  something  far  away,  as  one  of  these 
mountains.  We  are  distant,  and  in  between 
these  others  come  in  and  make  believe.  We 
cannot  help  it.  There  is  no  immediate  danger, 
Anna  can  be  reassured. ' ' 

Mrs.  Vernon  heard  my  sister:  *'I  was  there, 
but  I  could  do  nothing.  They  had  great  control 
of  the  conditions;  only  the  masters  could  con- 
trol them." 

At  this  meeting  I  was  sitting,  facing  Mrs. 
Vernon,  while  I  made  notes  of  the  messages  and 
wore  my  reading  glasses.    Around  us  plainly. 


234  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

seen  through  the  windows,  were  the  Vermont 
mountains.  Was  my  brother-in-law  in  the 
room?  Did  he  see  me  with  my  glasses?  Did 
he  see  the  mountains?  I  leave  it  to  my  readers 
to  reply. 

One  more  visitor  came  to  speak  with  Mrs. 
Vernon,  announcing  herself  by  the  appearance 
of  a  star.  Mrs.  Vernon  was  suddenly  deeply 
moved  and  tears  filled  her  eyes.  It  was  thus 
that  a  dear  friend  lately  torn  from  her  adoring 
family  announced  her  presence.  Star  was  her 
middle  name,  and  only  by  this  signal  was  she 
able  to  speak  to  her  friend.  Then  came  Mr. 
Friend  again,  accompanying  her  and  saying: 
* '  We  are  a  strange  band,  we  who  have  been  torn 
away  from  those  we  love.  There  is  a  strong 
bond.     We   call   ourselves   by   our  Christian 

names.    Violet,   Anne,    Edwin There   is 

plenty  of  work  for  the  charitably  inclined." 

That  Paradise  is  no  state  of  immediate  bliss, 
we  have  been  told  again  and  again.  Separation 
is  agony  there  as  here.  But  companionship, 
that  chief  est  joy  of  humanity,  is  an  inalienable 
privilege,  and  a  deep  consolation,  together  with 
charity,  which  suffereth  all  things,  even  in  the 
midst  of  the  labyrinthine  mysteries  of  the  here- 
after. Unconsciousness,  Mr.  Friend  has  else- 
where said,  may  endure  for  a  long  period,  not 
unconsciousness  of  self,  but  a  lack  of  compre- 


OLD  ACQUAINTANCES  285 

hension  of  the  meaning  of  the  universe  and  the 
necessity  of  spiritual  development.  In  that 
dim  Purgatorial  state  souls  may  linger  long, 
if  on  earth  they  have  refused  to  recognize  that 
inevitable  destiny.  Here  is  an  example  of  the 
loneliness  which  awaited  a  soul  to  whom  life 
was  an  almost  unmitigated  pleasure. 

**Have  you  seen  Mr. ?"  I  asked  my  sister 

one  day,  mentioning  the  name  of  a  brilliantly 
handsome  and  witty  friend  who  had  died  some 
twelve  years  ago. 

Mrs.  Vernon  saw  my  sister  laughing,  and  saw 
the  evocation  of  a  dancing  scene.  Mrs.  Vernon 
saw  also  a  vision  of  beautifully  dressed  women 
as  at  a  garden  party,  with  parasols  and  fans — • 
and  talking  together  with  gayety  and  laughter. 
She  said  that  she  felt  an  emanation  from  an 
individual  of  social  tastes,  and  saw  a  man  of 
"polish,  breeding  and  birth,  with  a  marked 
courtesy  and  distinction  of  manner." 

Then  Mrs.  Vernon  heard:  ''Louise  has  lent  a 
hand.  Tell  ray  wife  that  Louise  has  lent  a 
hand.  Louise  followed  me  up.  I  wanted  to 
come  back,  but  Louise  pushed  me  forward.  I 
was  homesick,  oh,  so  homesick.  I  missed  my 
wife 's  devotion.  * ' 

(Are  you  busy?) 

''Getting  myself  tidied  up,"  he  replied,  and 


236  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

showed  a  vision  of  a  valet  taking  off  his  coat 
and  putting  on  another  garb. 

**I  am  divested  of  my  earthly  habiliments 
and  trying  to  take  on  a  semblance  as  well  as  the 
fabric  of  spirituality. '  * 

That  he  would  try,  in  his  manly  way,  to  adapt 
himself  to  the  new  and  strange  conditions,  I 
could  not  doubt,  but  that  he  was  not  wholly 
successful  in  this  effort,  he  plainly  admitted, 
when  I  asked  him  if  he  was  happy. 

**Not  particulariy,"  he  answered.  **I  liked 
my  other  clothes  better,  but  as  they  are  appar- 
ently permanently  discarded,  I  have  gone  to  it, 
with  Louise's  help." 

The  name  of  his  gentle  sister-in-law  was  in- 
correctly transmitted,  but  in  a  later  sitting  he 
returned  to  give  it  again  and  then  with  better 
success.  Still  later  he  has  informed  his  wife 
that  he  is  a  "citizen  of  heaven,'*  in  which  loyal 
attitude  we  may  leave  him  with  hopes  of  ulti- 
mate and  increasing  contentment. 

An  instance  of  the  constant  watchfulness  of 
our  so-called  departed  loved  ones  occurred 
when  in  December  of  1918  I  had  an  attack  of 
pain  from  what  appeared  to  be  gallstones. 

On  the  morning  following  a  night  of  very 
severe  pain,  Mrs.  Vernon  visited  me  and  heard 
my  sister  say  that  she  had  been  with  me  during 
the  night  but  had  been  *  *  so  helpless. ' '    She  also 


OLD  ACQUAINTANCES  887 

said  that  there  was  **now  a  void  where  there 
had  been  occupation. ' ' 

On  the  Monday  following  December  the  9th, 
an  X-ray  examination  was  made  to  discover 
the  presence  of  gallstones. 

On  the  morning  of  December  10th  I  saw  Mrs. 
Vernon,  who  heard  the  following  message : 

''Punctilious  but  estimable  (character  of  my 
physician),  refutation  of  dogmas.  Portentous 
enquiry  (the  X-ray)  discloses  null  and  void 
protuberances. ' ' 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  10th  of  December  my 
physician  announced  to  me  that  ''the  X-ray 
showed  no  gallstones. ' ' 

I  am  informed  that  gallstones  are  not  always 
perceptible  by  the  X-ray,  but  the  information 
as  to  the  fact  that  none  were  disclosed  ante- 
dated the  announcement  of  the  physician. 
There  have  not  been  since  that  time  any  fur- 
ther evidence  of  their  presence,  altho  without 
question  they  were  the  cause  of  the  attack. 

The  hint  of  irony  at  the  "portentous  en- 
quiry" shows  that  our  friends  have  by  no  meana 
lost  their  humor  in  their  new  phase  of  existence. 

Assuming  that  it  is  true  that  our  friends  are 
often  with  us,  it  is  not  surprising  that  their 
chief  suffering  arises  from  their  helplessness 
to  manifest  their  presence  to  those  not  psychi- 
cally endowed,  particularly  when,  as  Raymond 


S88  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

relates,  they  see  their  dear  one  plunged  in 
hopeless  sorrow. 

A  striking  incident  suggesting  strongly  my 
sister's  presence  in  my  house  during  a  conver- 
sation between  my  husband  and  myself  was 
indicated  by  herself  during  the  private  seance 
with  Mr.  Ticknor. 

''What  about  the  Excelsior?*'  asked  my  sis- 
ter. *'R.  was  very  angry.  Did  he  say  the  in- 
strument gave  pain?" 

On  my  explanation  of  the  trouble  with  the 
management  of  the  "Excelsior"  company  and 
my  assertion  that  my  husband's  published 
criticism  of  one  of  their  instruments  was  justi- 
fied, although  it  elicited  a  protest  from  the  ad- 
vertising department  of  the  journal  in  which 
he  published  it,  she  replied : 

* '  I  did  not  say  he  was  wrong.  I  knew  he  was 
right  but  I  wanted  to  understand  it.  Who  is 
S— e?" 

The  reason  why  my  sister  failed  to  under- 
stand the  cause  of  my  husband's  annoyance  was 
that  she  did  not  read  the  letter  handed  to  me  by 
my  husband,  which  was  the  cause  of  this  annoy- 
ance. Hence  she  was  unable  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  our  conversation.  I  was  ignorant 
of  the  name  of  the  President  of  the  Company, 
which  she  gave  correctly,  as  I  was  afterwards 
informed. 


CHAPTER  IX 
A  Eecoed  of  Mateeiauzation" 

TOWARDS  the  end  of  the  year  1919,  I  re- 
ceived through  Mrs.  Vernon  certain  re- 
plies to  questions  regarding  the  ether,  which 
I  append  as  adding  further  testimony  to  that 
already  recorded  in  communications  from  be- 
yond regarding  the  existence  of  some  form  of 
matter  which  is  manipulated  by  the  discarnate 
and  forms  the  essence  of  their  ethereal  encase- 
ments. 

Mr.  Friend:  "Ether  is  a  term  for  this  matter 
or  substance.  This  surrounding  ethereal  sub- 
stance is  acted  upon  by  electrical  radiations. ' ' 

(Is  the  ether  itself  originated  by  force  or 
mind!) 

''Mind  must  have  something  to  act  upon  to 
manipulate  with.  How  can  a  carpenter  work 
without  wood  and  nails?  How  can  a  musician 
play  without  a  piano?  Thought  force  must 
have  material  to  play  upon.  Call  it  smoke.  It 
resembles  smoke.  Look  at  that  cigarette  smoke 
between  you  and  the  light.    The  air  is  filled 

239 


240  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

with  a  substance  like  that — smoke  only  more 
refined.  Einstein  has  formulated  only  one  step 
of  the  way.  He  has  not  gone  the  whole  way. 
You  can  call  this  substance  smoke,  or  ether,  or 
fog,  or  simply  atmosphere.  The  starry  theory 
is  right  inasmuch  as  meteoric  bodies  contain 
their  modicum  of  magnetism.  Currents  of  me- 
teoric magnetism  attract  the  output  from  the 
earth  and  other  stellar  bodies  and  the  revo- 
lution of  these  bodies  in  their  orbits  molds  and 
forms  this  substance,  without  any  particular 
direction  unless  a  brain  should  be  back  of  it. 
In  other  words,  emanations  go  round  and  round 
aimlessly  but  when  the  brain  says,  'I  will  make 
a  table,'  or  any  other  object  that  is  when  the 
substance  takes  form." 

On  December  9th  my  sister,  communicating, 
said  that  she  had  been  "tremendously  inter- 
ested in  her  development,  learning  the  A,  B,  C 
of  self-control  and  what  it  is  to  be  serious  in- 
stead of  frivolous  and  what  it  is  to  be  a  con- 
tainer of  spiritual  essences,  permeated  with 
spiritual  essences.  The  organisms  we  possess 
must  be  thus  permeated  or  it  means  disintegra- 
tion." 

(What  is  that  organism?) 

**Why  does  Anna  worry  so  much  about 
whether  you  call  it  ether  or  not?    That  organ- 


MATERIALIZATION  «41 

ism  is  what  you  call  a  composite  formation  con- 
taining virtually  all  of  the  molecules  compris- 
ing a  magnetic  emanation. ' ' 

(Is  there  any  material  or  matter  combined 
with  this  magnetism?) 

' '  Call  it  ether  or  atmosphere.  This  magnetic 
or  meteoric  magnetism  works  or  molds  a  certain 
kind  of  matter.  Creatures  of  flesh  and  blood 
inhabit  the  earth.  Creatures  of  magnetism  and 
matter  inhabit  the  ethereal  realms.'* 

(Are  there  ethereal  realms  around  the  stellar 
bodies?) 

*'Yes,  there  are.  Like  an  aeroplane  which 
swoops  down  and  swoops  up  again  we  can  enter 
where  we  choose.  As  the  penumbra  of  the 
brain  enfolds,  surrounds,  encloses, — each  plane 
has  its  penumbra — emanations  peculiar  to  each 
planet.  You  can  call  that  penumbra  ether,  air, 
atmosphere. 

''Meteoric  substances  which  are  thrown  off 
are  simply  matter  acted  upon  by  magnetism — 
acted  upon  by  the  gradations  of  the  air,  by  heat 
or  cold,  it  becomes  hard  or  soft.  Get  your  de- 
ductions from  Nature.  Get  an  example  and 
follow  it  straight  through." 

Here  then  in  these  messages  from  my  sister 
and  Mr.  Friend  we  have  at  least  three  state- 
ments   of   an    illuminating    character.    First, 


M2  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

there  is  a  substance  indeterminate  in  its  name 
but  a  substance  which  has  an  existence.  Sec- 
ondly, we  have  the  statement  that  it  is  acted 
upon  by  magnetic  forces  and  also  by  thought. 
Third,  we  have  a  statement  that  the  substance 
exists  in  the  penumbra  or  spheres  of  the  stellar 
bodies. 

Is  the  ethereal  realm  around  the  earth  the 
habitat  of  those  lately  departed?  There  are 
many  testimonies  from  what  we  call  the  ''be- 
yond" which  would  indicate  this.  In  the  little 
book  entitled  ''Gone  West"  which  contains  the 
automatically  written  messages  from  the  late 
Dr.  L.  S.  Mitchell  of  Minneapolis,  he  says  that 
our  "worlds  are  really  one.  We  see  the  astral 
or  real  side  of  the  same  objects  you  behold  and 
even  enjoy  many  of  the  same  pleasures,  notably 
music,  though  our  ears  are  attuned  to  many 
higher  vibrations  of  sound  which  are  not  re- 
vealed to  you."  Again  he  says:  "  'Here'  and 
*  There'  are  so  interrelated  that  there  really 
is  no  separation." 

Such  statements  as  these  combined  with  the 
photographic  impression  of  a  crowd  of  spirits 
as  reproduced  by  Mr.  Hereward  Carrington 
from  Mrs.  Dupont  Lee's  photograph  in  his  lat- 
est volume,  "Modern  Psychical  Phenomena," 
would  strongly  suggest  the  interpenetration 
of  the  first  spiritual  realm  with  our  own  world. 


MATERIALIZATION  24.3 

In  this  realm,  as  in  other  planetary  spheres, 
some  substance  existing  in  the  air  or  atmos- 
phere is  manipulated  by  the  discarnate,  it  would 
appear.  As  to  the  formation  of  the  ethereal  or 
spiritual  body  out  of  matter  and  magnetism,  my 
sister's  statement  definitely  illustrates  the  ex- 
periments of  Col.  de  Eochv^c,  who  was  able  to 
isolate  and  photograph  the  magnetic  emana- 
tions from  the  living  human  body. 

Correspondences  between  the  statements  of 
the  discarnate  and  the  experiments  of  living 
investigators  are  numerous.  The  thought 
forms,  beautifully  drawn  and  colored,  which 
have  been  published  by  Mr.  Leadbeater  and 
Miss  Besant  are  precisely  those  which  trans- 
cendental communicators  describe.  Dr.  Mitchell 
relates,  for  instance,  ' '  that  he  had  been  having 
regular  lessons  in  the  use  of  thought  force. 
First  I  was  shown  how  one  could  see  thought 
forms.  They  are  colored  vibrations.  Next  I 
was  given  experiments  in  using  the  power  to 
materialize  objects."  Dr.  Mitchell  describes  a 
concourse  of  heaven  dwellers  in  a  temple  who 
sent  out  a  mass  of  golden  thought  over  the 
battlefields,  and  over  Turkey,  there  finding  just 
the  red  and  purple  thought  emanations  of  ha- 
tred and  violence  which  represent  those  pas- 
sions according  to  the  records  of  Mr.  Lead- 
beater. 


244  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

It  now  devolves  upon  me  to  record  a  recent 
experience  of  my  own  in  witnessing  the  phe- 
nomena of  materialization. 

On  the  18th  of  December,  1919,  I  went  with 
the  Eev.  Elwood  Worcester  and  his  nephew. 
Rev.  Worcester  Perkins,  to  Concord,  Mass. 
There  lives  William  Foss,  well  known  to  the 
late  Prof.  James  and  a  man  of  unquestionable 
repute  in  Concord,  where  he  has  spent  his  long 
life  of  nearly  sixty-eight  years.  There  were 
present  at  the  sitting,  which  took  place  in  Mr. 
Fosses  house,  his  wife,  who  is  blind  but  en- 
dowed with  clalirvoyant  vision,  his  son  and 
daughter-in-law,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Garrett,  and  my- 
self. A  table,  nearly  six  feet  square,  occupied 
a  large  part  of  the  kitchen  and  around  it  were 
wooden  armchairs  which  on  two  sides  were 
closely  set  between  it  and  the  walls  of  the  room. 
Two  persons  sat  at  each  end  of  the  table  and 
on  either  side  of  the  table.  Mr.  Foss  and  Mr. 
Garrett  sat  in  two  chairs  between  the  table 
and  the  wall;  Dr.  Worcester  and  his  nephew 
sat  in  the  two  chairs  at  the  end  of  the  table; 
next  the  wall  Mrs.  Foss  and  her  daughter-in- 
law  sat  in  the  chairs  at  the  side  of  the  table  op- 
posite Mr.  Foss  and  Mr.  Garrett;  Mr.  Foss's 
son  and  I  sat  at  the  end  of  the  table  opposite 
Dr.  Worcester  and  Mr.  Perkins.  We  all  held 
each  other's  hands  during  thfe  sitting.    After 


MATERIALIZATION  246 

the  singing  of  some  songs  a  cold  breeze  blew 
through  the  room ;  then  the  table,  the  chairs  and 
the  entire  room  shook  as  if  on  a  rocking  boat. 
Then  as  a  first  evidence  of  materialization, 
warm  and  living  hands  touched  my  hair,  my 
shoulders,  my  face,  in  many  repeated  caresses. 
Mrs.  Foss,  through  her  clairvoyant  vision  in- 
formed me  that  she  saw  a  woman  whom  she 
announced  was  my  sister.  A  bit  of  chalk  had 
been  put  in  the  middle  of  the  table.  Soon 
there  was  a  sound  of  writing  and  then  a  signal 
to  turn  up  the  light.  I  had  previously  asked 
my  sister  to  try  to  write  something  in  her  own 
handwriting.  When  the  light  flooded  the  room 
I  saw,  written  directly  in  front  of  me,  the  name 
she  called  herself  as  a  child.  This  name  was 
known  to  no  being  in  that  room  except  myself. 
I  affirm  that  I  was  holding  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Foss 's  son  and  his  wife,  and  that  I  did  not  touch 
the  chalk.  After  the  name  was  written  my 
hand  was  grasped  and  the  chalk  put  into  my 
fingers.  Another  written  message  from  my  sis- 
ter in  answer  to  a  mental  question  of  my  own 
was:  **"We  are  happy.'* 

I  then  asked  her  if  she  could  write  a  message 
in  regard  to  my  husband  in  her  own  handwrit- 
ing. She  attempted  to  do  this,  writing  my 
husband's  name  very  clearly  and  directly  in 


2i6  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

front  of  me  upon  the  table,  but  interfering  with 
her  message  were  two  lateral  series  of  Hebrew 
characters — some  ancient  spirit  having  evi- 
dently intervened. 

Later,  I  asked  my  sister  if  she  could  go  to 
Chicago  and  tell  me  something  about  my  hus- 
band. The  message  she  left  upon  the  table  in 
answer  to  this  was  "Proof.  I  will  try.*'  After 
a  half  hour  had  passed  by  my  hand  was  grasped, 
rapid  knocks  were  made  upon  the  table,  writing 
was  heard  and  again  the  chalk  was  put  into  my 
hand.  When  the  light  was  turned  up  again, 
directly  in  front  of  me  upon  the  table  we  saw 
the  two  words  **Sold  to-day.'*  The  satisfac- 
tion expressed  in  the  character  of  the  knocks 
and  the  way  my  hand  was  grasped  and  turned 
over  were  justified  by  the  success  of  the  test, 
which  she  was  able  to  bring  to  us. 

On  my  return  to  New  York  on  Friday,  De- 
cember 19th,  I  was  informed  that  my  husband 
had  sent  a  telegram  from  Chicago  accepting  a 
proposition  for  the  sale  of  a  piece  of  property. 

Very  soon  after  this,  a  curious  sound  of  sob- 
bing was  heard  in  the  air  and  the  blind  Mrs. 
Foss  declared  it  was  my  sister  expressing  her 
emotion  at  being  able  to  make  her  presence 
known.  Again  when  another  communicator 
mischievously  refused  to  carry  out  some  of  the 
requests  of  the  sitters  I  said,  "Will  our  kind 


MATERIALIZATION  247 

friends  be  good  enough  to  hasten,  for  I  am  very 
tired  ?  I  have  come  a  long  journey  and  must  go 
again  early  in  the  morning  to  New  York." 
Then  distinctly  a  voice  said, ' '  God  bless  you  for 
coming." 

During  the  sitting  a  very  loud  sound  of  writ- 
ing was  heard  with  the  chalk,  and  when  the 
light  was  turned  up  a  message  from  Prof. 
James  was  found  with  his  signature  recognized 
as  accurate  by  Dr.  Worcester.  Then  again 
in  the  darkness  his  hand,  recognized  by  Dr. 
Worcester,  grasped  his  hand  giving  him  the 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  grip.  Upon  Dr.  Worcester's 
statement  that  he  had  recognized  the  form  of 
Prof.  James'  hand  and  the  old  college  grip, 
three  loud  affirmative  knocks  were  heard  upon 
the  table. 

Other  personalities  appeared  at  this  remark- 
able seance  but  nothing  so  evidential  as  the  two 
tests  which  my  sister  was  able  to  give  to  us. 

Mr.  Foss  has  been  possessed  of  this  remark- 
^able  materializing  power  since  early  youth  and 
relates  examples  of  materialized  formations 
and  conomunications  from  individualities  long 
known  to  him,  which,  according  to  him,  are  far 
more  remarkable  than  the  manifestations  which 
I  witnessed.  No  comment  is  necessary  to  em- 
phasize the  impression  of  my  sister's  actual 


248  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

presence.  Her  emotion  at  being  able  to  speak 
with  me,  her  words,  her  gentle  touch  upon  my 
brow  bring  it  to  me  as  never  before  the  convic- 
tion that  there  are  indeed  no  dead. 


CHAPTER  X 
And  Oue  Last  Enemy  is  Death 

THREE  objections  are  commonly  advanced 
by  the  ignorant  and  inexperienced  against 
an  acceptance  of  the  possibility  of  communica- 
tion. The  first  is  that  it  is  due  to  * '  telepathy. ' ' 
The  second,  that  messages  purporting  to  come 
from  the  beyond  really  proceed  from  the  ' '  sub- 
conscious mind."  Third,  that  if  the  messages 
are  actual  communications  from  the  so-called 
dead,  they  are  too  trivial  in  character  to  com- 
mand respectful  attention. 

In  regard  to  telepathy,  it  is  pertinent  to  quote 
its  exact  definition  as  demonstrated  by  the  Eng- 
lish Society  for  Psychic  Research.  ' '  Telepathy 
is  the  transference  of  thought  from  one  mind 
to  another  without  visible  means  of  such  trans- 
ference." Telepathy,  used  as  a  refutation  of 
the  assertion  of  the  possibility  of  communica- 
tion between  the  discarnate  and  the  incarnate, 
presents  no  valid  argument.  Rather  does  it 
expose  the  undifferentiated  thought  of  the  mul- 
titude. Allowing  that  such  a  means  of  com- 
munication does  exist  between  incarnate  minds, 

249 


250  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

it  does  not  deny  an  apparently  similar  process 
of  communication  between  the  discarnate  and 
the  incarnate.  Eather  does  it  present  a  work- 
ing hypothesis  of  such  communication. 

Again,  the  transference  of  thoughts  from  the 
subconscious  mind  of  the  medium  to  his  active 
mind  or  from  the  subconscious  minds  of  the  ex- 
perimenters, is  urged  as  an  explanation  of  all 
messages  of  apparently  supernatural  origin. 
As  in  supernormal  telepathic  messages,  so  in 
these  subconscious  emanations,  one  test  and 
one  alone  is  crucial,  as  to  their  origin.  Do  they 
convey  information  absolutely  new  to  both  me- 
dium and  experimenter?  If  they  do  and  this 
information  is  capable  of  verification,  then  we 
must  deny  their  normal  or  human  origin — at 
least  until  some  hitherto  unsuspected  human 
faculty  is  discovered,  which  can  account  for 
their  reception. 

To  the  last  objection  as  to  the  triviality  of 
the  messages,  is  it  pertinent  to  enquire  if  it  is 
not  the  most  natural,  nay,  the  inevitable  method 
of  attempted  identification,  to  refer  to  definite 
occurrences  or  objects  known  commonly  to 
both  the  unseen  communicator  and  the  experi- 
menter? Would  it  not  be  the  ideal  method  to 
supply  information  unknown  to  the  experimen- 
ter and  of  such  definite  and  practical  signifi- 
cance as  to  permit  of  verification? 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  251 

Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  literature 
of  the  subject  and  with  the  records  of  the 
various  societies  for  Psychical  Eesearch  are 
aware  of  a  large  number  of  published  messages 
from  the  illuminated  inhabitants  of  the  Other 
World,  which  contain  instruction  of  a  highly 
spiritual  character,  and  of  a  mass  of  material 
still  unpublished,  for  the  reason  that  it  does  not 
contain  this  evidential  and  so-called  trivial 
material. 

Was  the  significance  of  the  first  message  of 
the  Morse  telegraph  considered  to  be  impor- 
tant? Was  not  the  fact  that  the  message  was 
transferred  and  its  transference  verified  all 
important?  As  to  the  transference  of  thought 
waves  from  the  subconscious  mind  of  the  me- 
dium to  his  active  mind,  and  from  the  subcon- 
scious minds  of  the  experimenters  to  the  con- 
scious or  the  subconscious  mind  of  the  medium, 
it  is  indisputable  that  such  transference  does 
very  frequently  take  place.  In  the  immediate 
and  even  distant  environment  of  the  medium, 
endowed  apparently  with  a  receiving  apparatus 
capable  of  registering  thought  waves,  various 
entities,  incarnate  and  discarnate,  may  exist, 
each  sending  out  these  waves,  each  speaking  a 
wireless  language.  What  then  seems  more  cer- 
tain than  that  such  an  apparatus  in  the  brain  of 
the  psychic  should  register  all  or  any  of  the 


252  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

thoughts  thus  propagated?  Because,  then,  a 
living  being  speaks  in  this  involuntary  projec- 
tion of  thought  waves,  is  it  not  possible  that  a 
discarnate  being  should  also  thus  speak,  vol- 
untarily or  involuntarily? 

The  subconscious  mind,  which  has  long  been 
the  particular  province  of  Psychology,  has  been 
adopted  by  Psychic  Science  as  a  promising 
field  of  exploration,  as  the  repository  of  unsus- 
pected and  so-called  supernormal  powers  in 
man,  as  a  means  of  communication  with  the 
''cosmic  reservoir,"  as  the  guardian  of  all 
memories,  as  the  larger  and  enduring  part  of 
the  human  soul.  Through  the  open  door  in  this 
subconscious  mind,  do  floods  of  inspiration  pour 
in  from  the  infinite  ?  Such  is  the  theory  of  Mr. 
Myers,  who,  in  an  illuminating  chapter,  defines 
genius  as  a  **  subliminal  uprush." 

From  artists,  poets  and  musicians,  from  in- 
ventors and  from  cordons  bleux  comes  the  in- 
variable testimony  that  the  inspiration  of  their 
best  accomplishments  is  dictated  to  them. 
Sometimes  with  exaltation,  sometimes  with  an 
atmosphere  of  serene  solemnity,  this  inspira- 
tion comes,  and  the  sensation  of  the  smooth 
and  uninterrupted  current  of  suggestion  aris- 
ing from  the  depth  of  the  subconscious  to  the 
active  executing  brain,  is  one  which  is  experi- 
enced by  every  individual  possessed  of  creative 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  «63 

imagination.  The  very  word — inspiration — in 
its  universally  accepted  significance,  defines  the 
process.  Are  the  faculties  resident  in  this 
mysterious  indefinable  and  uncharted  region 
of  the  human  spirit  intrinsic?  Are  the  powers 
not  rather  commanded  and  utilized  by  super- 
normal guardians  and  masters,  whose  dwelling 
is  in  infinite  knowledge  ?  Does  the  subconscious 
mind  lie  open  to  those  influences  ?  So  the  meta- 
phor of  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  who  compares  it  to 
"an  iceberg  whose  submerged  and  larger  part 
is  subject  to  the  ocean  tides,"  would  indicate. 
Although  subconscious,  this  part  of  the  hu- 
man mind  is  apparently  never  idle,  but  sends 
out  constant  waves  of  thought  which  are  regis- 
tered, not  only  upon  the  surrounding  ether,  but 
inevitably  upon  the  receiving  apparatus  of  all 
psychics.  The  possibility  that  the  messages 
are  thus  received  by  their  peculiarly  organized 
brain  ganglia,  must  therefore  be  fully  recog- 
nized and  the  significance  of  all  messages  ex- 
amined in  the  light  of  this  possibility.  Un- 
conscious dramatization,  even  impersonation  of 
character,  infinitely  mysterious  and  most  dis- 
concerting to  the  experimenter,  must  also  be 
recognized  as  a  faculty  of  this  perplexing  por. 
tion  of  the  human  organism.  From  the  deep 
recesses  of  this  unfathomable  part  of  us,  for- 
gotten  or    fortuitous    records    of   facts   may 


254  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

emerge,  so  that  no  proof  of  any  communication 
from  beyond  is  acceptable,  unless  it  contains 
information  absolutely  new  to  botli  medium 
and  experimenter.  Fortunately  for  the  in- 
creasing numbers  of  believers  in  survival  and 
communication,  a  large  volume  of  information 
of  this  crucial  order  exists  and  can  be  examined 
by  any  honest  inquirer. 

In  pursuing  such  an  investigation,  the  honest 
inquirer  should  beware  of  the  possibility  of  an 
altered  attitude  regarding  facts  of  such  illimit- 
able importance;  for  they  are  facts,  no  longer 
subject  to  denial  or  contempt.  It  is  not  beyond 
the  scope  of  definite  assertion  to  declare  that 
no  investigator  of  intelligence,  approaching 
this  subject  without  prejudice  and  prepared  to 
use  his  reason,  has  ever  emerged  from  such  an 
examination  a  determined  skeptic.  No  more 
rigid  method  of  proof  and  investigation  can  be 
devised  than  that  already  applied  to  these  phe- 
nomena. It  has  remained  for  the  elite  of  the 
intellects  of  all  civilized  nations  to  attack  these 
mysteries,  and  their  united  aflBrmation  regard- 
ing their  reality  and  their  testimony  regarding 
their  high  significance  cannot  be  disregarded. 

Mr.  Arthur  Balfour  and  his  brother  Gerald, 
their  sister,  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  and  her  husband, 
Myers,  Sir  William  Crookes,  Sir  Oliver  Lodge, 
Sir  William  Barrett,  Euskin,  AVallace  and  Sir 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  255 

Conan  Doyle  in  England,  are  witnesses  who 
must  be  heard.  In  France,  the  names  of  Richet, 
Bergson,  Janet,  Flammarion,  de  Rochas,  De- 
lanne,  Boirac,  Maxwell,  Kardec,  Schrenck-Not- 
zing,  Geley  and  Madame  Bisson.  In  Italy,  Lom- 
broso,  Morseli  and  Schiaparelli  j  in  Switzer- 
land, Prof.  Floumoy;  in  Holland,  Profs.  Malta 
and  Van  Zelst;  in  Russia,  Atsakoff,  swell  the 
distinguished  list  of  scientific  investigators.  In 
America,  Prof.  Hare  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  leading  chemist  of  our  country  in 
his  day;  Prof.  James  of  Harvard,  Judge  Ed- 
munds, Mr.  Epes  Sargent  of  literary  fame,  as 
well  as  Drs.  Hodgson  and  Hyslop,  have  ad3ed 
their  records  of  investigation  and  personal  ex- 
periment to  the  mass  of  testimony.  If  is  a 
testimony  wonderfully  similar  in  its  main  lines 
of  deduction  and  of  theory,  based  on  scientific 
investigation  and  the  concordant  information 
from  beyond. 

Certain  facts  emerge  clearly  from  all  the  rec- 
ords of  communication.  First,  the  individual, 
immediately  after  death,  is  entirely  unchanged. 
Growth  in  spirituality  is  the  inevitable  road 
which  each  soul  is  destined  to  follow.  Environ- 
ment is  determined  by  the  degree  of  develop- 
ment. The  discamate  spirit  is  possessed  of 
powers  of  creative  construction  increasing  with 
practice  and  experience.    It  is  a  world  of  spirit, 


256  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

but  not  of  spirit  alone;  spirit  is  so  supreme 
that  more  insistence  is  placed  upon  its  supe- 
rior activities  than  upon  the  fact  that  it  has 
something  material  to  act  upon.  That  material 
has  been  called  the  ether,  and  out  of  it  all 
objects  known  to  the  ethereal  world  are  com- 
posed. But  it  can  be  manipulated  with  infinite 
ease  and  all  objects  retained  for  aeons  or  dis- 
carded in  a  moment  according  to  desire.  There 
are  purely  mental  vibrations  and  there  are 
* '  constructional  vibrations ' '  of  ether,  according 
to  information  given  to  me  through  Mrs.  Ver- 
non. These  * '  constructional  vibrations '  *  corre- 
spond, as  I  have  also  been  told,  to  manual  ma- 
nipulations of  matter  on  the  earth.  But  upon 
ethereal  matter,  these  vibrations  operate  with- 
out hands. 

A  correspondence  with  this  method  is  observ- 
able with  the  geometrical  patterns  formed  in 
sand  under  the  impact  of  sound  waves.  Pos- 
sessed, however,  of  unlimited  powers  of  pro- 
jecting images  the  inhabitants  of  the  other 
world  can  fashion  temporary  environments 
wholly  out  of  their  own  imaginations  or  mem- 
ories, it  would  seem,  which  have  a  reality  quite 
as  definite  to  themselves  and  to  each  other  as 
objects  made  out  of  the  ether,  or  as  our  objects 
are  to  us.  A  published  incident,  which  seems 
to  illustrate  this  power  in  the  discarnate,  is  re- 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  257 

corded  in  the  book  called  ''An  Adventure," 
where  two  ladies  walked  into  the  Park  of  the 
Petit  Trianon  of  Marie  Antoinette's  memory, 
as  she  might  have  projected  it.  There  were 
the  old  walks,  and  lakes  and  trees ;  there  were 
the  wheelbarrow  and  the  gardener  of  her  day; 
there  was  the  Queen  herself,  in  the  simple  dress 
in  which  it  had  been  her  pleasure  to  clothe  her- 
self in  that  lost  garden  of  her  dreams — dreams 
so  vivid  and  so  potent  that  the  eyes  of  strangers 
found  them  more  real  than  its  modern  and 
actual  appearance. 

Thus  there  appear  to  be  two  distinct  methods 
of  creative  activity  in  the  other  world ;  one,  an 
entirely  mental  projection  of  images ;  the  other, 
a  mental  manipulation  of  the  ' '  ether. ' '  These 
two  distinct  methods  probably  account  for  the 
apparent  disagreement  in  the  testimony  from 
beyond,  regarding  the  construction  of  the  other 
world. 

All  knowledge  is  not  immediately  given  to 
souls  discamate,  who  still  seek,  at  least  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  their  evolution,  for  the  solution 
of  the  secrets  of  creation.  The  practical  and 
material  minded  individualities  such  as  Ray- 
mond, rejoicing  in  a  solid-seeming  world,  pro- 
pound the  theory  that  some  sort  of  matter  is 
utilized  in  the  making  of  that  world.  Others 
see  only  the  agency  of  the  spirit.    Spirit,  al- 


258  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

ways  the  supreme  agent,  seems  to  be  the  har- 
monizing basis  of  both  processes,  that  which 
utilizes  purely  mental  vibrations,  as  well  as  that 
which  uses  the  constructional  vibrations,  which 
seem  to  collect  or  condense  the  substance  called 
ether  for  use  in  the  formation  of  temples  of 
learning,  and  of  music,  or  the  houses  intended 
to  serve  a  more  permanent  use  perhaps,  than 
the  vanishing  projections  of  pure  imagination. 
We  are  told  in  all  transcendental  communi- 
cations that  the  body  of  the  discarnate  soul  is 
made  of  this  ethereal  substance,  but  that  the 
soul  can  fashion  for  itself  its  earthly  appear- 
ance and  habiliments  at  will.  Is  this  the  spir- 
itual body  of  St.  Paul,  the  non-material  part  of 
us  which  we  already  possess?  Science  itself 
has  opened  the  door  to  this  hypothesis.  When 
the  statement  of  Haeckel  that  the  brain  atoms 
had  properties  which  initiated  or  exuded 
thought  was  denied,  when  scientists  themselves 
asserted  that  between  the  brain  atoms  a  space 
existed,  filled  with  so-called  "mentiferous 
ether,"  then  indeed,  we  were  permitted  to  im- 
agine the  essence  of  the  ethereal  body  and  its 
incarnate  existence.  When,  then,  this  ethereal 
body  escapes  from  its  material  encasement, 
does  it  not,  like  the  Psyche  of  the  Greeks,  fly 
into  this  ethereal  realm,  its  proper  element  and 
home? 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY 

Possessed  still  of  all  its  earthly  memories  and 
loves,  manipulating  that  telepathic  power,  now 
proved  to  belong  to  the  self-incarnate,  would 
not  that  unchanged  self  send  thought  vibrations 
to  those  ready  and  waiting  to  receive  them? 
Illustrating  the  analogy  of  this  means  of  com- 
munication with  the  universal  wave  theory  of 
heat  and  light  and  sound,  would  not  the  vibrat- 
ing thoughts  of  those  lost  to  our  sight  seek 
often  and  sometimes  find  the  organisms  pre- 
pared to  receive  them? 

The  messages  I  have  received  are  published 
with  the  hope  that  they  may  add  versimilitude 
to  this  analogy  and  help  to  confirm  the  resulting 
hypothesis,  that  by  this  method  the  dead  indeed 
do  speak,  and  by  permission  and  in  strict  ac- 
cordance with  universal  law. 

While  ignorance  and  indifference  present  bas- 
tions of  solid  opposition  to  the  advancing 
torches  of  the  new-old  truths  of  spiritual  con- 
tinuity. Science  and  Religion  go  forth  to  give 
them  battle.  The  priests  of  Padua  who  refused 
to  look  through  Galileo's  telescope,  have  been 
followed  by  those  who  fought  the  beneficent 
agent  of  anesthesia,  who  denied  the  phenome- 
non of  hypnotism,  and  those  who  first  derided 
telepathy,  only  to  use  it  later  as  their  chief 
arm,  with  which  to  combat  transcendental  com- 
munication. 


260  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

The  last  and  most  tenaciously  held  hypothesis 
of  those  who  would,  at  all  sacrifice  of  logical 
reasoning  and  of  probability,  deny  the  facts  of 
communication  and  survival,  is  that  the  mind 
of  the  psychic  can  take  up  messages  from  the 
air  or  ether  as  does  the  wireless  telegraph.  To 
perceive  the  messages  which  bear  information 
unknown  to  both  psychic  and  sitter,  they  as- 
sume that  the  psychic  must  possess  a  selective 
power  by  which,  out  of  all  the  illimitable  num- 
ber of  thoughts  which  are  recorded  in  the 
ether  of  the  earthplane,  the  exact  message  des- 
tined for  the  sitter  may  be  singled  out.  Not 
one  attested  incident  has  been  hitherto  re- 
corded, which  proves  that  such  a  power,  prac- 
tically omniscient  in  its  extent,  is  possessed  by 
any  medium,  and  no  attempt  by  the  skeptics 
has  yet  been  made  to  explain  the  method  by 
which  this  power  can  be  exercised.  "An  ex- 
tension of  telepathy"  is  the  expression  which 
represents  the  effort  of  such  distinguished  in- 
dividuals as  the  editor  of  a  serious  magazine 
and  the  bishop  of  an  English  see,  to  explain  all 
messages  which  come  from  the  earth  plane  by 
means  of  this  wholly  hypothetical  ''selective 
power"  of  the  medium.  This,  they  assert,  is 
an  "easy  explanation"  of  the  reception  of  in- 
formation, altho  it  is  unknown  to  both  psychic 
and  sitter.    In  this  attempt  to  account  for  such 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  261 

messages  their  reasoning  seems  to  proceed 
somewhat  in  this  manner : 

If  the  mind  of  the  psychic  possesses  this  se- 
lective power,  then  this  power  would  account 
for  messages  bearing  information  unknown  to 
both  medium  and  experimenter.  Therefore  the 
psychic  does  possess  this  power.  To  such  lacu- 
nae in  logic  does  the  determination  not  to  ac- 
cept the  glorious  facts  of  communication  and 
survival  force  these  distinguished  gentlemen. 

Their  attitude  resembles  that  of  a  fugitive 
driven  to  the  last  ledge  over  a  precipice.  Above 
him  are  impassable  heights,  below  him  is  the 
yawning  chasm.  Thus,  driven  to  a  last  extrem- 
ity, the  hunted  man  utters  unreasoning  cries 
of  distress  and  resorts  to  any  desperate  move 
which  offers  a  last  chance  of  escape.  Yet,  if 
the  fugitive  should  fall  into  the  chasm,  what 
would  await  him?  The  wings  of  angels  would 
bear  him  up  to  that  very  immortality  which 
has  been  the  teaching  of  the  bishop,  we  may 
believe,  since  he  first  assumed  the  office  of  a 
teacher  of  the  Gospel. 

"When,  then,  shall  the  pealing  of  every  church 
bell,  the  echo  of  every  hymn,  the  symbo\  of  the 
cross,  the  mounting  spires  of  every  shrine,  be 
accorded  their  eternal  significance  as  fortified 
and  a  thousand  times  over  proved,  by  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  new  Psychic  Science  I   How  long 


262  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

will  facts  of  such  incalculable  importance,  from 
the  viewpoint  of  their  own  teaching,  be  denied 
by  these  teachers  ? 

As  to  the  assumption  of  a  harmony  in  thought 
currents  analogous  to  those  of  the  ether  waves 
of  the  wireless  telegraphy,  it  must  be  proved 
by  many  attested  examples  before  it  can  be  used 
as  a  basis  for  this  easy  explanation  of  an  "  ex- 
tension of  telepathy." 

The  impact  of  physical  emanations  of  mag- 
netism may  give  rise  to  a  simple  concept,  or 
vague  sensations  such  as  the  ''warning"  of 
the  imminent  meeting  with  a  friend,  and  might 
present  a  partial  analogy  to  the  method  by 
which  wireless  messages  are  transmitted.  This 
analogy,  however,  is  incomplete,  in  that  these 
messages  or  warnings  amount  only  to  sensa- 
tions, wordless  and  undifferentiated,  and  wholly 
unlike  the  elaborate  phrases  by  which  definite 
information  is  conveyed  to  the  psychic. 

As  before  stated  the  most  rigid  tests  of  the 
origin  of  apparently  supernormal  messages 
must  be  satisfied  before  certainty  of  transcen- 
dental communication  is  attained.  That  no 
knowledge  of  the  information  in  a  message 
should  be  possessed  by  any  living  being  on 
the  earth  plane,  should  be  certain,  in  the  face 
of  the  enormous  significance  of  the  possibility 
of  communication.    Among  the  multitude  of 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  263 

messages  which  by  no  possibility  could  have 
emanated  from  any  individual  on  the  earth 
plane,  consider  that  received  by  the  late  Mrs. 
Verrall  of  Cambridge,  by  automatic  handwrit- 
ing, of  the  English  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search and  afterward  quoted  by  Maeterlinck  in 
his  book  * '  L  'Hote  inconnu. '  * 

At  eleven  o'clock  one  evening,  Mrs.  VerralPs 
hand  wrote,  in  Latin,  Greek  and  English,  a  mes- 
sage which  informed  her  that  at  last  a  proof 
would  be  given  her  which  would  satisfy  her, 
and  through  her,  would  convince  many  others 
that  communication  was  possible.  The  proof 
would  come  from  "the  chalk  upon  the  feef 
The  message  was  signed  by  a  drawing  of  a  bird 
walking. 

At  half  past  two  the  following  morning,  that 
is,  four  and  a  half  hours  later,  two  men,  who 
had  heard  that  in  certain  chambers  on  the  other 
side  of  London  strange  occurrences  had  taken 
place,  had  prepared  to  investigate  them.  They 
covered  the  floors  with  scraped  chalk.  Then 
they  extinguished  the  lights.  They  were  alone 
in  the  rooms.  After  several  hours  of  waiting, 
they  turned  up  the  lights  and  there,  plainly  seen 
in  the  chalk,  were  five  tracks  of  bird's  feet. 
Mrs.  Verrall  had  never  heard  of  these  experi- 
menters ;  they  had  never  heard  of  her.  We  can 
hardly  deny  a  considerable  ingenuity  to  the 


5864  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Latin  and  Greek  writing  spirits,  who  devised 
this  extraordinary  test. 

No  impact  of  thought  waves  from  the  earth 
plane  could  account  for  this  prophetic  announce- 
ment.   Nor  an  extension  of  telepathy. 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Myers  failed  to  send,  after 
his  death,  the  correct  sentence,  which,  before 
death,  he  had  written  in  a  sealed  envelope,  is 
often  quoted;  while  an  incident  of  the  success 
of  a  bef ore-death  test,  recorded  in  Myers '  own 
book,  is  by  preference,  apparently,  omitted. 
This  incident  will  be  found  in  the  appendix  of 
his  ''Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of 
Bodily  Death. '^ 

The  reason  for  the  failure  of  Mr.  Myers  is 
suggested  by  Miss  Dallas  in  her  book,  ''Mors 
Janua  Vitas,"  where  she  ascribes  it  to  the 
subconscious  suggestion  of  Mrs.  Verrall's  own 
mind,  combined  with  an  incorrect  assumption 
that  another  message,  really  from  Mr.  Myers, 
but  unconnected  with  the  letter,  was  the  mes- 
sage in  the  letter.  No  notice,  moreover,  has 
been  taken  by  those,  who  seem  to  rejoice  at  Mr. 
Myers'  apparent  failure  in  this  case,  of  the  re- 
markable tests  of  his  surviving  intelligence,  ob- 
tained by  Mr.  Dorr  of  Boston,  through  Mrs. 
Piper,  and  recorded  in  the  book  of  Miss  Anna 
Hude,  as  well  as  in  the  Journal  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  for  Psychical  Research.    Mr.  Dorr, 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  265 

conceiving  that  he  might  obtain  important  reac- 
tions from  Mr.  Myers  if  he  read  aloud  while 
Mr.  Myers  was  in  possession  of  Mrs.  Piper's 
organism,  certain  passages  from  books  known 
in  life  to  Mr.  Myers,  read  ten  lines  from  Dry- 
den's  translation  of  Virgil.  Instantly  Mrs. 
Piper 's  directed  hand  wrote  the  two  lines  which 
in  the  original  text  followed  the  quotation,  but 
in  Mr.  Myers'  own  translation.  The  first  two 
lines  of  the  Dryden  quotation  were  also  given, 
but  again  in  a  translation  from  the  original  text 
which  was  apparently  retained  in  its  entirety 
in  Mr.  Myers'  memory.  Again  ten  lines  from 
Shelley's  translation  of  the  "Cyclops"  of  Eu- 
ripides were  quoted  by  Mr.  Dorr. 

"You  read  well,"  wrote  Mrs.  Piper's  hand. 

"Now,"  said  Mr.  Dorr,  "see  if  you  can  tell 
who  made  this  translation?" 

"Did  he  write  the  'Ode  to  the  Skylark?'  " 
answered  Mr.  Myers. 

Upon  Mr.  Dorr's  exclamation  of  satisfaction 
at  this  reply  Mr.  Myers  wrote,  "Thank  you  I 
If  I  am  not  Myers,  who  am  I?" 

The  retention  in  the  discarnate  memory  of  its 
stores  of  information  and  of  learning  has  no- 
where a  more  startling  example. 

As  to  the  confirmation  of  all  the  so-called 
miracles  in  Holy  "Writ,  they  furnish  such  in- 
dubitable   examples    of   the    so-called    super- 


266  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

normal  powers  in  man,  that  their  explanation, 
in  the  light  of  the  investigation  and  classifica- 
tion of  these  powers,  should  fill  the  empty 
church  benches  and  diminish  the  activities  of  all 
higher  critics. 

The  many  incidents  of  slate  writing,  for  in- 
stance, where  the  writing  has  appeared  with 
lightning  rapidity  on  both  sides  of  the  slate  si- 
multaneously, might  furnish  illuminating  sug- 
gestions as  to  the  method  by  which  the  ten 
commandments  were  written  on  both  sides  of 
the  tablets. 

So,  may  not  the  Jewish  law,  as  well  as  the 
Christian  revelation,  both  originate  in  direct 
intervention  and  actual  inspiration  from  on 
High!  All  the  after-death  appearances  of 
Christ ;  the  miracles  of  healing,  the  materializa- 
tion of  the  loaves  and  the  fishes,  the  levitation 
of  Christ's  body  as  he  walked  upon  the  waves, 
prove,  not  only,  that  phenomena  now  called 
psychic  were  used  as  powerful  agents  in  the 
formation  of  the  Christian  sect,  but  that  Christ 
himself,  a  son  of  God,  was  the  worker  of  these 
miracles,  through  his  control  of  matter  and  its 
laws. 

The  reviving  belief  that  man  is  of  a  tripar- 
tite organism  composed  of  body,  soul,  and  spir- 
it, is  definitely  stated  by  St.  Paul.  Such  has 
been  the  belief  of  the  ancient  races.    The  Kar 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  867 

of  the  Egyptians  is  the  Latin  Imago,  and  the 
Greek  Eidolon.  In  the  Ishtar  tablets  (B.C. 
2250)  there  is  a  record  of  materialization. 

''The  spirit  of  Heabani,  like  glass,  transpar- 
ent from  the  earth,  arose. ' ' 

The  rejection  by  some  modern  schools  of 
philosophy  of  the  notion  of  two  soul  essences, 
a  spirit  and  a  spirit  body,  has  the  portentous 
and  fatal  significance  of  reducing  the  spirit, 
when  once  deprived  of  its  material  encasement, 
to  an  indefinable,  abstract  and  indivisible  prin- 
ciple, having  neither  extension,  form,  nor  con- 
ceivable substance.  Upon  the  tripartite  con- 
ception of  the  human  organism  all  hope  of  the 
preservation  of  identity  depends.  Deprived  of 
its  ethereal  incasement  it  sinks  like  a  drop  of 
water  into  the  ocean  of  infinity.  This  philoso- 
phy is  reactionary,  reversing  the  intuitive  wis- 
dom of  the  ages,  disagreeing  with  the  great 
masters  of  antiquity,  such  as  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle, and  with  the  records  of  tablet  and  scroll, 
found  not  only  on  the  Egyptian  stones  but  in 
the  ancient  parchments  of  so-called  revealed 
religion. 

Now,  indeed  the  old  theory  of  an  ethereal 
body  arises  again  with  many  proofs  of  its  def- 
inite and  independent  existence  and  activities 
even  before  the  dissolution  of  its  material 
envelope. 


«68  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

In  the  legends  of  the  **Doppelganger"  we 
have  the  proof  of  the  German  belief  in  the 
ethereal  double,  and  now  with  a  characterist- 
ically accurate  power  of  making  a  term  of  per- 
fectly descriptive  significance,  we  have  the  scien- 
tific French  statement  of  a  belief  in  the  spiritual 
encasement,  in  the  word  "Peresprit." 

M.  Delanne,  in  his  book  ''L'Ame  est  Immor- 
telle,** relates  an  attested  incident  of  a  woman's 
voluntary  and  prearranged  projection  of  her 
peresprit  into  a  photographic  gallery.  There 
not  only  was  the  peresprit  photographed;  but 
while  the  photographer  was  in  his  cabinet  in  the 
process  of  developing  the  negative,  the  pere- 
sprit, by  what  power  one  cannot  know,  was  able 
to  throw  the  photographic  apparatus  upon  the 
floor.* 

Normal  activities,  such  as  are  possessed  by 
the  material  body,  do  not  seem  to  be  lacking 
in  the  ethereal  double,  as  is  proved  by  the  in- 
cident related  by  the  well-known  Dr.  Vittoz  of 
Lausanne,  who,  by  intention,  traveled  in  this 
ethereal  dress  to  a  cafe  in  Berlin.  There  he 
took  his  place  at  a  table,  with  one  companion, 
and  then  after  some  conversation  returned  to 
Lausanne. 

A  few  weeks  afterward  while  walking  in  a 
street  of  Lausanne,  he  encountered  a  man  who 

•Published  by  Mr.  Stead  in  "Borderland,"  April,  1896. 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  269 

seemed  strangely  familiar.  While  he  was  try- 
ing to  recollect  where  he  had  seen  him,  the 
friend  of  the  Berlin  cafe  walked  up  to  him,  say- 
ing that  he  was  pleased  to  have  again  met  him 
and  was  anxious  to  renew  their  agreeable  con- 
versation. There  are  thus,  it  would  appear, 
various  phenomena  which  will  not  be  explained 
by  '  *  an  extension  of  telepathy. ' ' 

In  the  long  journey  from  half -conscious  ani- 
mal to  the  cloud-reaching  heights  of  conscious 
Divinity,  man's  knowledge  of  the  secrets  of 
creation  may  be  an  attainable  goal.  We  may 
even  now,  in  this  remarkable  age  of  human 
progress  and  change,  be  entering  a  new  stage 
of  evolution.  Powers  unclassified,  although 
long  manifested,  now  have  their  accepted  names 
and  significance.  By  telepathy  we  know  we  can 
speak ;  by  projection  some  human  beings  travel 
to  distances,  away  from  their  still  living  ma- 
terial forms.  A  voice  may  be  photographed 
and,  by  the  telephone,  heard  across  oceans  and 
continents.  Wireless  vibrations  carry  messages 
and  voices  over  miles  of  intervening  ether. 
Thought  images  can  be  photographed.  Thought 
can  move  electric  needles.  The  X-ray  sees 
through  solids  and  the  cinematograph  records 
objects  in  motion,  even  the  infinitesimal  crea- 
tures which  swim  in  the  drops  of  water.  We 
have  conquered  the  air.    Surely  the  boundary 


270  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

betwixt  matter  and  spirit  grows  wonderfully 
thin.  We  know  now  that  the  matter  of  which 
we  are  made  is  dissolvable  and  that  it  is  manip- 
ulated by  thought.  The  enormous  significance 
of  this  discovery  points  to  an  amazing  and,  as 
yet,  scarcely  realized  extension  of  our  under- 
standing of  the  constitution  of  matter  and  of 
our  own  ultimate  destiny,  when  finally  possessed 
of  a  full  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  universe. 

The  dissolvable  quality  of  the  matter  of  which 
our  bodies  are  made  was  proved,  not  only  by 
the  experiment  of  Prof.  Schrenck-Notzing  and 
Dr.  Geley,  but  also  by  those  of  Dr.  Crawford, 
when  at  his  behest  his  unseen  colaborators  re- 
moved a  portion  of  the  weight  of  his  medium. 
If  this  is  possible,  according  to  the  observa- 
tion of  these  unquestionably  reliable  witnesses, 
may  not  the  time  arrive  when  complete  de- 
materialization  of  the  human  body  may  also 
be  possible? 

Would  this  be  the  manner  in  which,  accord- 
ing to  St.  Paul  in  that  truly  inspired  chapter  in 
Corinthians,  "we  shall  not  all  die,  but  be 
changed"?  Is  this  the  *'Far  off  divine  event 
towards  which  the  whole  creation  moves**?  In 
this  way  perhaps  death,  the  last  enemy,  shall  be 
conquered.  Thus,  perhaps,  when  they  have 
learned  all  that  it  is  intended  that  they  shall 
ultimately  learn  in  this  earthly  existence  the 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  271 

sons  of  men  shall  put  on  immortality.  Thus, 
fashioned  after  his  likeness  out  of  one  sub- 
stance, dissolvable  and  mutable  under  Divine 
law,  our  remote  descendants  may  change,  **in  a 
moment, ' '  into  the  shining  garments  of  eternity, 
and,  to  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  of  triumphant 
attainment,  may  scale  the  heights  of  heaven. 
f  We  know  already  what  our  destiny  is,  for  it  is 
explained  to  us  in  every  whisper  which  comes 
to  us  along  the  heavenly  wires.  It  is  spiritual 
development  and  this  is  the  inevitable  law  of 
this  upward  progress.  The  mystic  realization 
of  ** harmony  with  law'*  is  the  word  of  life 
eternal.  This  realization  is  purely  ecstatic,  as 
all  who  have  experienced  it  will  testify.  ''Un- 
derneath me  are  the  Everlasting  Arms"  is  only 
another  expression  of  the  rapture  of  conscious 
union  with  all  laws,  which  are  themselves  the 
expression  of  God's  will  and  design.  So  to  the 
mystic,  incarnate  or  discamate,  all  nature  is 
harmonious;  to  him  the  far  horizon  beckons; 
with  flowers  and  music  he  is  at  one.  At  one, 
also,  with  all  souls  who  glimpse  the  wonder  and 
profundity  of  the  ever  unfolding  plan  of  Divin- 
ity. 

No  longer  is  he  solitary  in  the  limitless  uni- 
verse whose  wonders  are  his  inalienable  in- 
heritance. 

Such  we  may  imagine  is  the  inexpressible  joy 


272  A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

of  those  who  in  heaven's  own  light  **bask  in 
the  glory  of  spirituality,  pervading  the  uni- 
verse with  beneficence"  of  which  my  trans- 
lated sister  has  told  me. 

As  to  the  varieties  of  man-made  doctrine, 
themselves  derived  from  the  aspirations  of  hu- 
manity towards  God,  they  will  not  be  main- 
tained, we  are  told.  Not  those  which  have, 
through  the  long  ages,  lost  the  simplicity  of 
the  early  revelation.  In  the  recurring  circles 
of  human  thought,  scientific  investigation  has 
brought  the  present  comprehension  of  Christ's 
early  teachings  and  his  miraculous  deeds  nearer 
to  the  original  circle  of  primitive  Christian 
revelation  than  since  the  days  when  He  first 
walked  in  Galilee. 

**I  venture  now  a  bold  saying,"  said  Fred- 
erick Myers,  in  his  published  book.  **I  predict 
that  in  consequence  of  the  new  evidence  all  rea- 
sonable men,  a  century  hence,  will  believe  in  the 
Resurrection  of  Christ;  whereas  in  default  of 
the  new  evidence  no  reasonable  man  a  century 
hence  would  have  believed  it." 

What  matter  if  doctrines  must  pass,  when  we 
know  that  in  all  the  stars  of  heaven  the  Christ 
spirit  is  supreme;  when  the  essential  truth  of 
the  religion  which  he  taught  pervades  with 
thunders  of  overpowering  light  the  remotest 
regions  of  eternity? 


OUR  LAST  ENEMY  273 

In  messages  from  beyond,  the  glorified  spirit 
of  Frederick  Myers  has  spoken  of  Christ  as  the 
"Highest  spirit  known  to  us,"  and  again  he 
calls  him  "The  Living  One."  So  to  humanity 
ascended,  Christ  is  still  Lord,  and  descending 
from  those  infinitely  far  heights  of  contempla- 
tion beside  the  throne  of  God,  He  still  lives 
to  instruct  and  to  aid  the  spirits  of  men  in- 
carnate and  discarnate.  In  Him  the  personality 
of  God  has  its  eternal  and  supreme  incarna- 
tion. 

"Religion,  or  religions,"  so  speaks  a  spirit 
teacher,  "are  tutors  of  young  souls;  images 
given  to  those  incarnate  during  the  infancy  of 
their  evolution,  in  order  that  in  their  memories, 
conduct,  and  duty  alike  shall  persist,  in  the 
pursuit  of  that  progress  whose  laws  they  obey. 
But  like  the  child  who  leaves  his  parents '  arms 
as  soon  as  he  feels  that  his  limbs  will  support 
him,  the  incarnate  soul  escapes  from  the  bonds 
of  dogma,  as  soon  as  it  feels  that  it  is  strong 
and  courageous  enough  to  fly  alone  and  unaided 
towards  its  eternal  abode." 

Message  by  automatic  handwriting  received  by  Madame 
de  W.  and  published  in  her  book,  "Ceux  qui  nous  quittent.'* 
Paris,  1917. 

THE  EKD 


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